July 11 (UPI) — British billionaire Sir Richard Branson became the first owner of a private space company to fly into space decades after launching a mail-order record retailer that would grow to become Virgin Group.
Branson, 70, joined two pilots and three other employees to test the astronaut experience on the VSS Unity spaceship for Virgin Galactic, one of 40 Virgin companies operating in 35 countries.
As a high-school dropout at the age of 15, Branson launched his first successful business venture, a youth culture magazine called Student.
After the magazine began to lose money in the 1960s, Branson formed Virgin Mail Order Records as a means to raise funds, devising the name because he considered himself inexperienced in business.
By 1971 Branson had opened the first British discount record store and in 1973 helped form the label Virgin Records, which signed Mike Oldfield as its first act before going on to sign acts including the Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones.
Following a decade in the record industry, Branson sought to expand his business empire in 1984, becoming the majority owner of British Atlantic Airways and renaming it Virgin Atlantic. He also developed Virgin America but it was sold to Alaska Airlines in 2016 and the name later was retired.
He also developed Virgin Rail on West Coast until 2019.
Bfranson is working on high-speed, hyperloop transportation project called Virgin Hyperloop in the United States.
In 1992, Branson sold Virgin Records to raise additional funds for Virgin Atlantic as his ever-evolving conglomerate, which included Virgin Megastores, became one of Britain’s largest privately held companies with about 100 businesses.
Shortly after the dawn of the new millennium in 2004, Branson founded Virgin Galactic, which 17 years later would launch Branson into space.
“It’s amazing where an idea can lead you, no matter how far-fetched it may seem at first,” Branson wrote in a blog post ahead of the journey.
Branson’s spaceflight continues a long history of stunts and records he has pursued as the head of Virgin.
In 1986, Branson was part of a two-man team that set a record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a powerboat and a year later he and Per Lindstrand of Sweden became the first team to cross the Atlantic in a hot-air balloon and the first to cross the Pacific Ocean in 1991.
He was also part of multiple failed attempts to travel around the world in a hot-air balloon, including one that was the first hot-air balloon trip to fly across the entirety of Asia.
Branson was knighted in 1999 and received the Citizen of the Year Award from the United Nations Correspondents Association in 2007.
He has also published several books, been involved in numerous charitable efforts and in 2004 launched Virgin Unite, a nonprofit foundation that seeks to unite people with entrepreneurial ideas.
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