私人航天第一人！71岁布兰森抢先“上天”成功，马斯克全程观看，多位明星等待升空！（附视频&摘要稿）
英语演讲视频，第一时间观看
有钱真可以上天！71岁布兰森抢先贝佐斯，完成4分钟太空游！
北京时间7月11日晚，71岁的英国亿万富翁维珍银河创始人理查德·布兰森成为第一位开启太空旅行的航空航天公司所有者，当日，维珍银河“团结”号太空船试飞成功，布兰森成为进入太空边缘的私人航天第一人。平安返回地球，布兰森称这次飞行是“毕生难忘的经历”。
报道称，“团结”号于7月11日在新墨西哥州的上空发射升空，两名飞行员驾驶了这艘载有亿万富翁创始人和三名维珍银河员工的飞船。“团结”号在距地面约15千米的高空被释放后，启动了其火箭发动机，并在加速到超过音速后爬升到太空边缘。
布兰森在太空时说，“在地球上的所有孩子们，我也曾经是一个梦想仰望星空的孩子。现在我是宇宙飞船上的成年人，有许多其他优秀的成年人，一起俯视着我们美丽、美丽的地球，下一代的梦想家们，如果我们能做到这个，请想象一下你们能做什么。”
维珍银河公司创始人理查德·布兰森返回地球后开香槟庆祝。值得一提的是，在正式出发之前，布兰森得到了一位老朋友的当面祝福。这位老朋友，不是别人，正是他的“竞争对手”：SpaceX 创始人兼 CEO 伊隆·马斯克。马斯克的出现带来了一丝“英雄相惜”的意味。
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Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson rocketed into space Sunday, an edge-of-the-seat sub-orbital test flight intended to demonstrate his company's air-launched spaceplane is ready for passengers who can afford the ultimate thrill ride.
And it appeared to do just that, zooming to an altitude just above 50 miles and giving Branson and his five crewmates about three minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views of Earth before plunging back into the atmosphere for a spiraling descent to touchdown at Virgin's New Mexico launch site.
"I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid but honestly, nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space," Branson, 70, said after landing, at a rare loss for words. "It was just magical. ... I'm just taking it all in, it's unreal."
The flight effectively upstaged Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who plans a sub-orbital spaceflight of his own aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft on July 20 as the two companies compete for passengers in the emerging commercial space marketplace.
Bezos complimented Branson and his team after landing, posting a note to Instagram saying "congratulations on the flight. Can't wait to join the club!"
Branson's trip began in dramatic fashion as Virgin's twin-fuselage carrier jet — with the VSS Unity rocket-powered spaceplane bolted under its wing — lifted away from the company's Spaceport America launch site near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, at 8:40 a.m. local time (10:40 a.m. EDT).
Joining the globe-trotting billionaire aboard Unity were pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci, along with Virgin astronaut trainer Beth Moses, flight engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, the company's vice president of government relations.
With a throng of reporters and a global audience following along on YouTube and across Virgin's social media channels, the Virgin mothership VMS Eve slowly climbed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and then, after a final round of safety checks, released Unity high above the New Mexico desert.
Seconds later, Mackay and Masucci, both veterans of earlier test flights to space, ignited Unity's hybrid rocket motor, slamming the crew back in their seats as the spacecraft shot forward and pitched up onto a near-vertical trajectory.
Burning rubberized solid propellant with liquid nitrous oxide, Unity's hybrid motor fired for about one minute, accelerating the craft to about three times the speed of sound before shutting down.
The spaceplane continued zooming upward along a ballistic trajectory, giving Branson and company a chance to briefly unstrap, float about the cabin and marvel at the spectacular view as Unity reached its maximum altitude of 53.5 miles — three-and-a-half miles above what NASA and the FAA consider the "boundary" of space.
Live video from inside the spacecraft showed Branson and his crewmates floating free of their seats and enjoying the sensation of weightlessness, not to mention the out-of-this-world view.
"To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars," Branson said while his cremates cavorted in microgravity. "Now I'm an adult, in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults, looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth.
"To the next generation of dreamers: If we can do this, just imagine what you can do!" he said, before floating out of his seat.
A few moments later, the spacecraft then began the long plunge back to Earth.
Using an innovation pioneered by aircraft designer Burt Rutan, Unity's wing and tail fins are designed to pivot upward 60 degrees once out of the atmosphere, giving the spaceplane the aerodynamics of a badminton shuttlecock, ensuring a belly-down re-entry.
Mackay and Masucci rotated the wing upward shortly after the rocket motor shut down and left it in the "feathered" orientation until it descended to around 55,000 feet when it was pivoted back parallel to the fuselage, turning Unity into a glider.
From there, the pilots guided the spaceplane through a spiraling descent, lined up on Spaceport America's 12,000-foot-long runway and settled to a picture-perfect landing, closing out a flight that lasted 59 minutes from takeoff to touchdown.
Mike Moses, Virgin president for space flight and safety, said an initial look at the data showed Unity came through its latest mission in great shape.
"We've looked at the data, we've done our quick engineering walk around (and) the ship looks pristine, no issues whatsoever," he said. "We'll take our time, do all the detailed inspections, and then we'll figure out when we're ready to go again. But ship looked perfect."
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Space Force agree that space effectively begins at an altitude of 50 miles where the atmosphere is so thin that wings, rudders and other aerodynamic surfaces no longer have any effect.
As a result, Branson, Bennett and Bandla are now considered full-fledged Virgin astronauts, a distinction granted to Mackay, Masucci and Moses after earlier test flights.
Sunday's launching marked Unity's 22nd test flight, its fourth trip to space, Virgin's first with a six-person crew on board and the first for Branson, who beat Bezos into space by nine days.
Virgin Galactic and Bezos' Blue Origin both plan to launch passengers on flights to the edge of space and back and both are in the final stages of test flights before beginning commercial operations.
Branson effectively blindsided Bezos, scheduling Sunday's flight just ahead of the Amazon founder's, which had already been announced. But Branson insisted again Sunday that he doesn't view the competition as a "race" for space.
"I've said this so many times, it really wasn't a race," Branson said. "We're just delighted that everything went so fantastically well. We wish Jeff the absolute best and the people who are going up with him during his flight."
Virgin plans two more test flights, but company officials hope to begin launching paying customers, at $250,000 or more per seat, in early 2022. Flush with success Sunday, Branson announced a charity sweepstakes benefitting Space for Humanity, saying two winners will be selected to join one of the initial commercial flights.
维珍银河在7月11日高调全球直播这次飞行。根据公开信息，布兰森所乘坐的太空飞船从新墨西哥州的美国太空港起飞。 和布兰森同行的还有5名乘员，包括两名太空飞行员戴夫·麦凯、迈克尔·马苏奇以及维珍银河首席宇航员教官贝丝·摩西、维珍银河首席运营工程师科林·班尼特、维珍银河政府事务和研究运营副总裁西里莎·班德拉。其中，维珍银河的飞行员戴夫·麦凯和迈克尔·马苏奇负责驾驶VSS Unity飞船。
马斯克也在现场观看。在正式飞行前，布兰森还在网上晒出与马斯克的照片，两人都特别兴奋。布兰森乘坐的是维珍银河公司开发的航天飞机“太空船二号”，由运载母舰“白色骑士二号”携带到高空后点火，可以飞升到8万米以上的高空，短暂体验太空失重，并观赏太空风光。据网易科技报道，整个飞行过程完美完成，在下降过程中，布兰森轻松地拉着后座乘员的腿玩了起来，相当地放松。而着陆后，71岁的布兰森笑容满面走出机舱。
此次太空旅行，布兰森比其太空旅行竞争对手蓝色起源创始人杰夫·贝索斯提前9天。此前，贝索斯曾在社交媒体上宣布，他将于7月20日乘坐蓝色起源公司开发的“新谢泼德”飞船赴太空旅行。
这次试飞成功对布兰森而言至关重要，他不仅超越贝索斯成为第一位开启太空旅行的航空航天公司所有者，也为维珍银河明年开始的商业载人航天飞行提供了经验——现阶段，亚轨道飞行之旅还属于富人圈层的冒险游戏，很多人担心其可行性和安全性。在正式推出商业飞行之前，经过公司创始人、核心管理层亲身尝试和验证，才会更有说服力。
布兰森和贝索斯争相前往太空，除了实现自己的梦想之外，还有着更多商业考量——他们都想瓜分数十亿元的太空市场。 维珍银河和蓝色起源是全球亚轨道商业旅行的两大竞争对手，二者都力图抢占先机，在这一商业领域赢得先发优势。
自2018年12月维珍银河的宇宙飞船 SpaceShipTwo成功飞向太空以来，已有近万人表示对太空旅游感兴趣，据了解，维珍银河已经以20万-25万美元的价格出售了700多张“旅游门票”， 其中包括布拉德·皮特、莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥、汤姆·汉克斯等名人。而此次布兰森亲自上天，自然带有最强的广告效应。
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