Richard Branson reveals spaceflight details, thoughts on 'competition' with Jeff Bezos

The billionaire will take flight as early as July 11.

Richard Branson announced Thursday he will be joining the crew of his next spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, besting fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to space. The Virgin Group founder joined "Good Morning America" Friday to discuss how he, the team of engineers and test pilots have prepared for the big moment, as well as what he really thinks of the launch date set just nine days prior to the Amazon CEO. "I know that it's been painted as a race, honestly I don't think either of us see it that way," Branson said of the plan nearly 20 years in the making. 'We're both doing something pretty different -- the people that go up with us are going up in a spaceship -- they launch from a beautiful space port in New Mexico and then Jeff has a different approach. So we're not really in direct competition. I have enormous respect for what he's doing and I know he has enormous respect for what our wonderful team are doing as well." The first fully crewed spaceflight for SpaceShipTwo Unity will take place July 11, pending weather and technical checks.