{"id":588236,"date":"2021-07-11T12:20:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T16:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588236"},"modified":"2021-07-11T12:20:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T16:20:46","slug":"branson-wins-billionaire-space-race-hits-53-miles-above-earth-in-rocket-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/branson-wins-billionaire-space-race-hits-53-miles-above-earth-in-rocket-plane\/","title":{"rendered":"Branson Wins Billionaire Space Race, Hits 53 Miles Above Earth In Rocket Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbranson-wins-billionaire-space-race-hits-53-miles-above-earth-in-rocket-plane%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588236&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-2.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Sir Richard Branson on Sunday won the space race among his fellow billionaires, rocketing to an altitude of more than 53 miles above the Earth, considered space by U.S. agencies. In doing so, he became the first earthling to soar into space in his own vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>In a roughly 14 minutes flight, Branson, 70, the founder of Virgin Airlines and now Virgin Galactic, beat out rival Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who is planning to fly to space in a rocket just nine days from now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLadies and gentlemen, there it is. More than half a century since the world rejoiced when humans first achieved spaceflight, Richard Branson fulfills his dream of experiencing space travel,\u201d said comedian Stephen Colbert, who hosted coverage on Virgin\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>About 500 people, including Branson\u2019s wife, children and grandchildren who had gathered at a runway in Truth or Consequences, N.M., cheered when the space plane landed.<\/p>\n<p>The flight went like this:<\/p>\n<p>The mothership WhiteKnightTwo took off with SpaceShipTwo \u2014 also known as VSS Unity \u2014 attached in between its twin fuselages. At about 46,000 feet, the mothership then released SpaceShipTwo, which ignited its rocket engines, climbing vertically. The spacecraft soared at Mach 3 \u2014 more than 2,300 miles per hour \u2014 to its apogee at about 282,000 feet (53.4 miles) high. Then it began its descent and the four passengers \u2014 who did not wear spacesuits or helmets and had no need to supplemental oxygen \u2014 experienced weightlessness for a couple minutes. SpaceShipTwo then re-entered the Earth\u2019s atmosphere \u2014 causing a double sonic boom \u2014 and glided back to land at a runway.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"7.8501628664495\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Take a look at the flight path our SpaceShipTwo will take during our fifth supersonic powered test flight. The flight window opens again tomorrow. More info on our flight test program can be found here <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FPuuC0NHoM\">https:\/\/t.co\/FPuuC0NHoM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/riEiledjo6\">pic.twitter.com\/riEiledjo6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/virgingalactic\/status\/1098635524707733504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 21, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Branson, who designated himself Astronaut 001, appeared ecstatic in a video feed from inside the raft, but much of his audio feed was garbled. In one audible part, he said: \u201cSeventeen years of hard work to get us this far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The British billionaire was knighted for his contribution to entrepreneurship in 1999. He has become an adventurer, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a hot-air balloon in 2017 and becoming the oldest person to kitesurf across the English Channel in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>While fellow billionaire Elon Musk flew to New Mexico to witness the flight, Bezos was probably not too happy. Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin even threw some shade at Branson, saying he didn\u2019t really go to space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly 4% of the world recognizes a lower limit of 80 km or 50 miles as the beginning of space. New Shepard flies above both boundaries. One of the many benefits of flying with Blue Origin,\u201d they wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>And they tossed out another dig: \u201cFrom the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name. For 96% of the world\u2019s population, space begins 100 km up at the internationally recognized K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"8.515625\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Only 4% of the world recognizes a lower limit of 80 km or 50 miles as the beginning of space. New Shepard flies above both boundaries. One of the many benefits of flying with Blue Origin. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4EAzMfCmYT\">pic.twitter.com\/4EAzMfCmYT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Blue Origin (@blueorigin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blueorigin\/status\/1413521631717122059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 9, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Blue Origin also dissed Branson\u2019s SpaceShipTwo as just a high-altitude plane.<\/p>\n<p>The K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line is named after Theodore von K\u00e1rm\u00e1n, a Hungarian American engineer and physicist who was active in aeronautics and astronautics who lived from 1881 to 1963. The F\u00e9d\u00e9ration A\u00e9ronautique Internationale (FAI), an international body for aeronautics and astronautics that sets standards and keeps records, defines the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line as the altitude of 100 kilometers \u2014 or 62 miles (about 330,000 feet) \u2014 above Earth\u2019s mean sea level.<\/p>\n<p>But the U.S. puts the line of outer space at 50 miles. \u201cIt\u2019s also roughly the altitude that was used by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s when it gave out astronaut wings to test pilots who flew over 50 miles (80 km) high,\u201d according to astronomy.com.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s this: \u201c\u2018NASA Mission Control places the line at 76 miles (122 kilometers), because that is \u201cthe point at which atmospheric drag becomes noticeable,\u2019 Bhavya Lal and Emily Nightingale of the Science and Technology Policy Institute write in a 2014 review article,\u201d National Geographic reports. Bezos\u2019 \u201crocket\u201d won\u2019t fly above that altitude when it launches later this month.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir Richard Branson on Sunday won the space race among his fellow billionaires, rocketing to an altitude of more than 53 miles above the Earth, considered space by U.S. agencies. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314432,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Branson Wins Billionaire Space Race, Hits 53 Miles Above Earth In Rocket Plane","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Branson Wins Billionaire Space Race, Hits 53 Miles Above Earth In Rocket Plane","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}