Billionaire Race: Branson Set to Be First to Visit Space The URL has been copied to your clipboard 0:00 0:05:28 0:00 Pop-out player British billionaire Richard Branson is set to launch into space on Sunday on a rocket plane built by the space tourism company he created. The 70-year-old Branson will join two pilots and three other “ mission specialists” on the flight. Virgin Galactic -- the business Branson started in 2004 -- aims to fly private citizens to the edge of space. The trips are designed to permit passengers to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and observe the curvature of Earth. Virgin Galactic’s experience takes place in a space plane called VSS Unity. A large carrier airplane, called VMS Eve, carries the space plane to 15,000 meters and then releases it. VSS Unity then uses rocket power to fly to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.