Richard Branson Officially Wins The Billionaire Space Race, Promptly Gives The Corniest Speech Of All Time
Source - Richard Branson won the “billionaire space race” on Sunday — launching himself and five others more than 50 miles above the Earth to the point of weightlessness in his own Virgin Galactic rocket.
“It was the complete experience of a lifetime,” the beaming British entrepreneur, who will turn 71 in a week, said after shaking the hand of another member of the crew. “Now looking down at the spaceport, congratulations to everybody for creating such a beautiful plane and all the hard work for getting us this far.”
Branson set off with five employees a little after 8:30 a.m. local time from Spaceport America in New Mexico, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque.
Less than an hour after takeoff, the VSS Eve plane released its rocket at an altitude of 53 miles — farther than the 50-mile boundary considered by the US to be the boundary of space.
The crew was then able to unstrap to experience a few minutes of weightlessness before gliding back around 9:40 a.m. to the runway.
The Speech:
Wait, what? "I was once a child with a dream. Now I'm an adult with a scape ship?" That's the best you could come up with? You had five years to prepare a speech. How about a line about the journey? What space travel means? A thank you to the team who got you there? He's acting like he's the first guy to ever reach outer space. WE'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE, you buffoon, you're just the first person with enough time and money to build your own rocket. I've never understood why people make such a big deal about getting to outer space. You go up there, you float around for a couple of minutes, and you come back down. It's not. that. cool.
He also gave an equally preposterous speech once he landed about how he wants to "open space to everyone" for the low low price of $250,000...
The funnest part about it was that he said he wants grandkids to be able to experience space travel- like they give a shit. They want an inheritance and your private island, not a 50/50 shot of exploding on their way to the moon.
Here's a video of the rocket taking off for those of you who didn't see…
I don't know. The whole things just bores me. That and even if space travel becomes commercialized (it won't) no one will be able to afford it. So congrats on flight, Rich, can't wait to see what you do next!