Branson aims for space

RICHARD Branson plucks a dried grasshopper from a jar, takes a bite, and pronounces the insect surprisingly tasty before slurping down a vegan yogurt and offering to trial the concoction on Virgin Atlantic Airways flights.

Billionaire Richard Branson

The United Kingdom billionaire, a serial creator of companies spanning record labels to airlines to fizzy drinks and bridal gowns, is in his element.
He’s meeting with fellow entrepreneurs at a so-called “Pitch to Rich” session in Israel, where the contest’s winner gets a business-class flight to London for a week of hot-housing at Virgin’s own innovation hub.
The event in Tel Aviv speaks to the appetite for fresh ideas that still drives Britain’s best-known businessman in his seventieth year. Branson’s own contribution to human endeavor is about to enter a critical phase as Virgin Galactic, the prime focus of his attention for 15 years, prepares to launch the first tourists into space next year.
Travelling straight from Israel to the United States, Branson will ring the opening bell in the New York Stock Exchange on Monday as Virgin Galactic becomes the first space-launch company to go public.
On a trip marking Virgin Atlantic’s arrival in the Israeli market, the Englishman said he’s trying to quell his mounting anticipation about the upcoming space voyage given previous delays, including a hiatus following a crash that killed two test pilots in 2014. Branson has pledged to personally be aboard the first public space shot.
“Virgin Galactic has been a difficult baby and it’s gone through some tough teenage years, but we’re now close to creating something very special,” he said.
“There need to be more test flights this year and I’m trying not to get too carried away until a few months before the launch, but I’m very excited.”
The spaceflight is just one of a series of planned milestones in a 12 month period that’s set to define the Virgin Group’s future. With his iconoclast approach intact even after five decades in the business of disruption, Branson also has big plans for his airline, a satellite launcher and a cruise-ship business he plans to introduce next year, among other projects.
Boeing Co.’s future-technologies arm has pledged $20 million for a minority stake in Virgin Galactic, a business finding itself in increasingly hot competition for billionaire-funded space travel.
Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company plans to take payloads and tourists to the edge of space on an 11-minute flight, while Tesla Inc. chief executive Elon Musk’s SpaceX has also joined the race with a pledge in to send passengers to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Rather than an IPO, Virgin Galactic is listing through a merger with a publicly traded investment vehicle, Social Capital Hedosophia. Its shares rose 11 percent Friday after the combination was completed.
The new entity will be known as Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. and trade under the ticker SPCE.
Galactic is interested in developing hypersonic airline flights that would slash global travel times.
While the dream of linking London with Australia in just a few hours remains distant, its technology could be more readily adapted to link far-flung US cities, Branson predicts.
— Bloomberg