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Comment and Space

Why Richard Branson's promises about space tourism are empty

The billionaire businessman says he'll ride into space within months, paving the way to routine suborbital passenger trips. Don't get too excited, says Paul Marks

By Paul Marks

7 June 2018

Richard Branson

WIll Richard Branson take off in SpaceShipTwo this year?

Alamy Stock Photo

It emerged this week that SpaceX has from this year to late 2019 at the earliest for two extremely high-paying, but unnamed, passengers.

So what to make of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson’s latest declaration, aboard SpaceShipTwo, the company’s eight-seat suborbital spaceplane.

When it comes to suborbital ventures, we have heard such predictions before: Virgin Galactic was originally slated to begin ferrying deep-pocketed tourists to space by…

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