Says He Plans To Fly To Space Sometime Next Year

Following the October 31, 2014 accident involving Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo being tested for Virgin Galactic, the company has been fairly quiet about putting a timetable on when the new SpaceShipTwo ... dubbed VSS Unity ... will fly into space.

But GeekWire reports that Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson recently changed all that. During a trip to Hong Kong to kick off Virgin Australia's new route from Melbourne, Branson told Australian Business Traveler that "I plan to go to space next year."

VSS Unity has conducted multiple unpowered flights over the past year, and it could be that Branson's boast to the travel magazine may signal the start of powered flights in the not-too-distant future.

Branson said that the accident, which fatally injured co-pilot, Michael Alsbury and pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured, was a "major, major blow," Branson told the Australian magazine. "But everyone's worked day and night since then to get us back on track."

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Branson said that powered tests would be conducted about every three weeks, with the goal of test pilots reaching space by November or December. After he is the first passenger, Branson said that revenue flights could start by the end of 2018.

(Image from file)

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