British billionaire Branson says he is not in race with US rival Bezos to fly into space
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British Billionaire Richard Branson is going to great lengths to deny that he is in a race to fly into space ahead of US billionaire and arch rival Jeff Bezos. The controversy has arisen due to the timing of his company Virgin Galactic&rsquo;s space flight which is scheduled to take off just nine days ahead of Bezo-led Blue Origin&rsquo;s&nbsp; spacecraft.&nbsp;</p>
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The fact that both the promoters will be on board the flights being launched by their respective companies has only added to the element of competition between the two.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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Branson said in an interview to The Washington Post : &quot;It&#39;s just an incredible, wonderful coincidence that we&#39;re going up in the same month.&rdquo;</p>
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He told the leading US newspaper that the decision to move up the Virgin Galactic spaceflight to July 11 was &ldquo;honestly not intended to best&rdquo; the Amazon founder, whose voyage is slated for July 20.</p>
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Branson also said on NBC&#39;s &quot;Today Show&quot; that he is not in a space race with Jeff Bezos. &ldquo;Believe me when I say it, but honestly, there isn&#39;t competition,&quot; he said on the TV channel.</p>
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The British billionaire also said on NBC that he couldn&#39;t wait for the opportunity as he had dreamed of spaceflight since the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.&nbsp; Blue Origin&#39;s flight with Bezos is scheduled to launch on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.</p>
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Branson also claimed there is plenty of room for multiple space companies to fly tourists into space.</p>
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Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launched Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin respectively in the early 2000s. Their ultimate goal is to usher in a new-era of space tourism that enables rich clients to see the curvature of the Earth for a few minutes from space and briefly experience weightlessness.</p>
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Branson&#39;s flight takes off on Sunday from a base in New Mexico called SpacePort America. A carrier plane will take off from a runway and release the spaceship VSS Unity at 50,000 feet.</p>
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VSS Unity&#39;s two pilots will then start its rocket engines to take spacecraft to Mach 3 above the 50 miles (80 km) altitude which is considered the boundary of space by the United States.</p>
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Around 600 people are reported to have already bought tickets for going into space on board Virgin Galactic in future if its first journey turns out to be a success. They have paid a price that ranges from $200,000 to $250,000 for each ticket.</p>
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Blue Origin, on the other hand, has not released normal seat prices for its flights, but the high bid for a lucky contestant to gain a seat with Bezos fetched $ 28 million.</p>
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