“I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do”.
Richard Branson made this statement after flying to space at a maximum altitude of 86 kilometres with his crew affording them several minutes of weightlessness and gorgeous views of earth.
Brandson has challenged himself with many record-breaking adventures, including the fastest ever Atlantic Ocean crossing, a series of oceanic balloon journeys, and kitesurfing across the Channel.
Building a multi-billion dollar empire
Richard Branson owes his fortune to a conglomerate of businesses bearing the “Virgin” brand name, including Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic.
Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine called Student. In the 1970s he founded Virgin Records where he signed various artists including the Rolling Stones. Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984.
His record label Virgin Records was a huge success for a while before he ran into financial problems. Branson later sold Virgin Records to EMI for $1 billion. Branson formed Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Cargo in 1984, He leased his first 747 to fly from New York to Gatwick. He started competing in a market dominated by big national carriers, such as British Airways. Virgin Atlantic also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria, which ceased operations in 2009.
Other business ventures of the Virgin group include – Virgin Mobile, Virgin Trains, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Voyages. Branson also has many less successful ventures like Virgin Cola and Virgin vodka. There are now more than 40 Virgin companies worldwide in over 35 countries
Richard Branson is worth $5.4 billion according to Forbes
Starting Virgin Galactic
In 2004, Branson signed a deal under which his new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind SpaceShipOne funded by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen and designed by renowned aeronautical engineer, Burt Rutan, to take paying passengers into suborbital outer space.
Shortly after its founding, the company started selling tickets to its flights at a price of $200,000 which was later raised to $250,000 in 2013. Over 600 people have bought tickets for the trip so far.
In June 2021, Virgin Galactic received regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly passengers into space. After a series of test flights over the years, Richard Branson became the first billionaire to reach space on 12, July 2021, with the successful test flight of VSS Unity by Virgin Galactic alongside five other crew members.
Richard Branson is also a philanthropist. He owns a non-profit foundation called Virgin Unite which unites people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world.
