Sir Richard Brandon will fly to space on July 11, if all goes to plan, beating Jeff Bezos's planned flight by a week or two.
key to Virgin Galactic moving forward with its business was the granting last week of a commercial spaceflight licence by the Federal Aviation Administration. Sunday 11 July is the opening of what's termed a flight "window". The Galactic team will aim to make the ascent on that day, but it could of course be delayed because of unfavourable weather conditions or perhaps a technical issue. If the mission does indeed go ahead on that Sunday, it would mean Sir Richard stealing a march on his rival in sub-orbital space tourism, fellow billionaire Jeff Bez
What could be a better illustration of the over-rich being under-taxed than them blowing fortunes playing astronaut in the vague hope that when the world really starts to go to hell they'll be able to just leave it?