17 years after founding Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson to fly into space
India TodayHe's always dreamed of it, and in 2004 founded his own company to make it happen. On Sunday, billionaire Richard Branson will take off from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space. READ: Bezos, Branson put everything on the line as billionaires ride own rockets into space The Amazon founder's great rival, SpaceX boss Elon Musk, announced on Twitter he'd be there to witness it. Hours later, Bezos chimed in with a message of support, but only after his own company, Blue Origin, had posted a viral tweet drawing an unfavorable comparison between its space offerings and Virgin Galactic's. Below this plane hangs the spaceship VSS Unity -- a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered spaceplane -- with two more pilots and four passengers: Branson and three Virgin employees.