BRANSON HAILS DAWN OF A NEW AGE FOR DREAMERS – ARAB TIMES – KUWAIT NEWS – Arab Times Kuwait English Daily

BRANSON HAILS DAWN OF A NEW AGE FOR DREAMERS – ARAB TIMES – KUWAIT NEWS – Arab Times Kuwait English Daily

Space now for all

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, New Mexico, July 11, (AP): Swashbuckling entrepreneur Richard Branson hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket ship Sunday in his boldest adventure yet, beating out fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. The nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company reached an altitude of about 53 miles (88 kilometers) over the New Mexico desert – enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth – and then safely glided to a runway landing. “The whole thing, it was just magical,” a jubilant Branson said after the trip home aboard the sleek, white space plane, named Unity.