Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism flight is a historic moment – but out of reach for most people | US News

There was at least one Englishman with something to celebrate Sunday night.

It will go down in the history of the life of Sir Richard Branson like the day he officially received the title of astronaut after his successful journey to the outer reaches of space and back.

And if the live broadcast of the England game from 5,000 miles away put a damper on the day for some, Sir Richard’s emotions were high at the success of him and his crew.

Virgin Galactic’s 22nd test flight was the first to carry a full payload of passengers, all senior employees, and was a key moment in selling the idea of ​​space tourism to the widest possible audience.

It was also meant to reassure the hundreds of people who have already racked up a quarter of a million each to get a seat in the future that it could be done. Many have been waiting a long time for the ride.

Now it’s likely that at the start of the new year, Virgin will start taking paying passengers to the edge of space and giving them the chance to find out what Sir Richard has been up to.

“Indescribably good” was the billionaire astronaut’s only way to recount the sights and the feeling of weightlessness 50 miles above the Earth’s surface.

The excitement of a safe and successful mission was certainly contagious and it was without a doubt a historic moment in the race for private space.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk was there to witness the story – Sir Richard said he ran into his rival in his kitchen at 3 a.m. – and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent his congratulations.

They and a number of other societies will be encouraged, Sir Richard told me, by the success of this mission. They all think there are enough paying passengers to go around.

But, even with the raffle announced by Sir Richard for ordinary people to eventually win a seat on a future flight, for most people on the planet the prospect is financially out of reach.

After landing, …