Sir Richard Branson (almost) flies into space on VSS Unity Sir Richard Branson (far right) and the team that flew on VSS Unity Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic British billionaire Sir Richard Branson almost, but not quite, flew into space today as a passenger aboard the privately built and operated Virgin Galactic spaceplane, VSS Unity, which took off from Spaceport America, New Mexico at about 10:30 am EDT. Today's flight marks a major milestone in Virgin Galactic's 15-year struggle to establish a regular service to carry paying passengers and payloads into space. With pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci at the controls of VSS Unity, the rest of the complement consisted of Sir Richard, and mission specialists Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor; Colin Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations.