Branson plans first space trip days before Bezos blasts off

Richard Branson plans to fly to space on July 11, days before a similar journey by fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. The shares of Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. surged.

The VSS Unity spacecraft will also carry three Virgin Galactic employees and two pilots from the launch site in New Mexico, according to a company statement Thursday. Bezos is planning a trip to space July 20 from nearby West Texas aboard a rocket made by Blue Origin, the Amazon.com Inc. founder’s space company. Branson’s suborbital flight would fulfill a longtime goal for the U.K. billionaire and Virgin Galactic, which he founded in 2004. The company recently completed data analysis from its last test flight on May 22, and concluded it was ready to evaluate the cabin experience, said Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier. Branson had his pick of which of two planned flights this summer he’d prefer to join.