Richard Branson set to launch into space on Virgin Galactic spaceship

The billionaire joined the first fully crewed flight of his space tourism firm.

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson is set to launch to the edge of space Sunday in the first fully crewed flight from his private space tourism firm Virgin Galactic. Branson, 70, will serve as a mission specialist on what is being called the Unity 22 mission, the fourth crewed spaceflight for Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft. Unity is launched from a separate "mothership" aircraft called VMS Eve that takes off from a conventional runway before releasing the spaceship at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. The launch will take place from New Mexico's Spaceport America, and live coverage will commence at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday on Virgin Galactic's website and social media pages. The crew consists of fellow Virgin Galactic staff: Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennet, lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations.