Richard Branson: 'I would love Jeff Bezos to come and see our flight off'

Richard Branson, the British billionaire and entrepreneur, announced late Thursday that he would attempt to go to space on July 11, just nine days before the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, will make his own spaceflight. But even as he effectively cut ahead of Bezos, Branson dismissed the notion of it being a "race" and went so far as to invite his fellow billionaire to come watch.

The Virgin Galactic founder told CNN Business in a Friday interview that his surprise announcement about making his long-awaited trip to outer space next week on a Virgin Galactic spaceplane was a coincidence, and had nothing to do with Bezos's timing. Bezos said last month he would fly on July 20 aboard a rocket built by his own space company, Blue Origin. "I don't know for sure exactly when Jeff Bezos is going, he may decide to go before us, but I honestly don't see this as a space race," Branson told CNN Business' Rachel Crane. "I would love for Jeff to come and see our flight off whenever it takes place. I would love to go and watch him go in his flight, and I think both of us will wish each other well."