Richard Branson has claimed he will go on a trip to space with his company Virgin Galactic within the next six months.
The billionaire mogul also said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX.
The comments come just three years since Virgin Galactic’s catastrophic crash, which killed one pilot and injured another, and suggest the company is on target for its goal to send tourists into space by the end of 2018.
Speaking at the Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki, Finland, last week, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson (pictured at the event) said: ‘We are hopefully about three months before we are in space, maybe six months before I’m in space’
So far, more than 700 potential customers – including celebrities Brad Pitt, Katy Perry and Ashton Kutcher – have reserved a spot on one of the suborbital trips at a cost of $250,000 (£200,000) each.
Speaking at the Nordic Business Forum in Helsinki, Finland, last week, Branson said: ‘We are hopefully about three months before we are in space, maybe six months before I’m in space.’
When asked a question about who would reach Mars first, him or Musk, Branson said he was not as keen on the red planet as the SpaceX and PayPal founder.
‘I’m not as passionate about Mars as Elon is. My love for space is about how much it can do for people back here on Earth, and that’s what Virgin Galactic is pushing towards.’
Musk recently announced plans to land his first rockets on Mars by 2022 with SpaceX.
‘[Getting to Mars] is an incredible challenge, and I suspect Elon [Musk] will get there first,’ Branson said.
‘He’s more interested in big rockets going big distances. We’ve been more interested in talking people to space, and satellites, slightly closer to earth.’
Founded in 2010 with the aim of taking paying customers to space and back again, tragedy struck Virgin Galactic in 2014 when a catastrophic SpaceShipTwo test flight crash killed one pilot and injured another.
Branson claimed he will go on a trip to space with Virgin Galactic within the next six months. Pictured is a Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spacecraft during a test flight in August this year
It took two years for the company to regain approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly SpaceShipTwo again.
Branson also said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX
The firm has since tested several craft for their ability to reach Earth’s orbit.
Its most recent successful test flight came in August, with a glide test flight of its VSS Unity spaceplane, the company’s second version of SpaceShipTwo.
The spaceplane is designed to enter space via suborbital rocket flight, and if further tests go to plan could begin commercial flights as early as next year.
‘Our major first today though was that with the exception of the rocket motor fuel grain, called the CTN (Case-Throat-Nozzle), we flew with all the spaceship’s principle propulsion components on-board and live,’ the company said in a blog post describing the test.
During the flight, as with previous tests, Unity dumped 450 litres of water, simulating the shift in weight that would normally be caused by rocket fuel.
Unlike other commercial spaceflight companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic will initiate its flights without using a traditional rocket launch.
VSS Unity (pictured during a test flight in August) is designed to take customers into space via suborbital rocket flight, and could begin commercial flights as early as next year
Branson’s come just three years since Virgin Galactic’s catastrophic crash, which killed one pilot and injured another, and suggest the company is on target for its goal of sending tourists into space by the end of 2018 using a VSS Unity craft (pictured)
Instead, the firm will launch VSS Unity and other craft from a carrier plane, dubbed VMS Eve.
‘Within seconds,’ Virgin Galactic claims, ‘the rocket motor will be engaged’ and Unity will fly approximately three and a half times the speed of sound into suborbital space.
‘We are really pleased with what we saw today,’ said Virgin chief pilot David Mackay.
‘We collected hundreds of gigabytes of data for us to review, and from the pilots’ point of view, it felt really wonderful.
‘All of you here at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company should be very proud: VSS Unity is a great spaceship!’
In April, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic announced plans to launch tourists into space in 2018, with the first test flights beginning this year.
The Virgin Galactic boss said he would be ‘very disappointed’ not to go into space himself in 2018 and hopes his space tourism programme will be up and running in the same year.
Unlike other commercial spaceflight companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic will initiate its flights without using a traditional rocket launch. Instead, the firm will launch VSS Unity and other craft from a carrier plane, dubbed VMS Eve (pictured)
So far, more than 700 potential customers have reserved a spot on one of the suborbital trips at a cost of $250,000 (£200,000) each
In April, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic announced plans to launch people into space in 2018, with the first test flights beginning this year