What to know about Richard Branson's spaceflight, as billionaires race to the cosmos

What to know about Richard Branson's spaceflight on Virgin Galactic and how to watch it live.

Sir Richard Branson is set to briefly leave earth's atmosphere on Sunday, risking it all to usher in a new era of space tourism that has been propelled by a billionaire-backed commercial space industry. "We've spent 17 years trying to get to this stage," Branson said in an interview with ABC News' "Good Morning America" last week. "I'm just expecting the most extraordinary trip of my lifetime and by pioneering it myself, an extraordinary trip of a lifetime for other people in the future." If all goes well, Branson will beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos -- who revealed he was launching via his own rocket on July 20 -- into space by just over a week. While Branson said he doesn't see it as a "race," his own spaceflight announcement came just hours after Bezos' revealed he was bringing along a female pilot whose dreams of being an astronaut in the '60s were deferred. The two launches within ten days of each other leave some to speculate whether these billionaires are "democratizing space" as they claim, or seeking bragging rights here on Earth. Still, as with all spaceflights, swaths of viewers from across the globe are expected to tune in -- and there are no guarantees of safety as the ultra-rich use themselves as guinea pigs for their space-travel firms.