of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, rch, to alex witt reports. here s what is happening at 11 a.m. pacifictime, 2:00 p.m. eastern. we kick off with the story we have been bringing you live here on msnbc. one small step for man, and a giant leap for a billionaire taking on space as the next frontier. richard branson making history, successfully launching himself into space on his virgin galactic unity spaceplane. release, release, release, release. clean release. ignition. and branson s trip to the edge of space, edging out fellow billionaire jeff bezos in the race to commercialize space travel. he spoke about what it was like moments after landing. ridiculous. it is a complete experience of a lifetime. and now i m looking down at a
branson and his virgin galactic crew gearing up for tomorrow s groundbreaking launch. fire! reporter: the british billionaire set to lift off just nine days before jeff bezos takes his blue origin rocket to the edge of space. the 70-year-old daredevil will board virgin galactic s unity spaceplane for its fourth crewed test flight earlier than expected. the revved up timeline for branson sparking safety concerns. every single test flight we ve done, the last 22, have had people on board, and no one person is any real different than the other when it comes to safety. reporter: in 2014, virgin galactic lost one of its pilots during one of the company s test flights. the spacecraft broke apart and crashed into the mojave desert, killing a father of two young children. some painful moments in the last 17 years. some wonderful moments. but it s been 17 years of hard work. reporter: this mission, dubbed unity 22, is expected to last about 90 minutes. the spaceship unity attached t