Stunts are Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson’s stock in trade. Well aware that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to fly in a Blue Origin rocket on July 20, Branson is expected to climb aboard a Virgin Galactic flight this Sunday. News that the space flight company will launch its first test mission with a full crew put a booster under the share price.
Virgin Galactic is shrewdly commandeering some of the attention garnered by Bezos’s flight, who stepped down as chief executive of Amazon on Monday. On every other metric, Virgin Galactic appears to be lagging behind. Its spacecraft launches from an aircraft and is expected to rise 55 miles in the air. Blue Origin’s rocket takes off from the ground and will go up about 66 miles.
Putting Sir Richard on a flight a few days before Bezos does not mean Virgin Galactic will be first to launch commercial operations, either.