Jeff Bezos hails Richard Branson's successful voyage to space on Virgin Galactic's Unity

“Can’t wait to join the club,” said Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos hailing the success of Virgin Galactic’s founder Richard Branson on the historic voyage to the edge of the space. While Bezos will be following the same suit in a matter of days, the Amazon founder congratulated the British billionaire who along with five others flew to space aboard Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed flight on July 11.  The Virgin Galactic vessel reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometres) which is beyond the boundary of space set by the United States allowing all six passengers including Branson to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth’s curvature. 

Even though the company was prepared for any unprecedented situations, the trip preceded as planned. The touchdown occurred around 9:40 AM Mountain Time (1540 GMT) nearly an hour after take-off. Following the successful mission, as Blue Origin readies its own spaceflight on July 20, Bezos not only hailed the achievement but prior to that, he had also wished Branson “best of luck.” On July 10, Bezos addressed Richard Branson and said, “wishing you and the whole team a successful and safe flight tomorrow. Best of luck!”

Ahead of his Sunday mission, in interviews, Branson had said that Virgin Galactic's spaceflight was "honestly not" intended to best the Amazon founder whose voyage is slated for July 20. In an interview with Washington Post, Branson said, “It's just an incredible, wonderful coincidence that we're going up in the same month.” 

‘Experience of a lifetime,' explains Branson

While the successful mission implied that Branson had defeated Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the British billionaire hailed the “experience of a lifetime” along with acknowledgement of the “hard, hard work” that went into the flight. Branson is now the first owner-astronaut to take part in the mission until Bezos kickstarts a similar mission through his Blue Origin in a few days. Branson said, “I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but nothing could have prepared me for the view of Earth from space. We are at the vanguard of a new space age. As Virgin’s founder, I was honoured to test the incredible customer experience as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists and now astronauts.”

“ I can’t wait to share this experience with aspiring astronauts around the world.” He continued, “Our mission is to make space more accessible to all.”

IMAGE: Jeff Bezos/Instagram/AP