Branson and Musk, a Meeting of 'Eccentrics' Aiming to Conquer Space

Musk Keeps Promise to Visit Ahead of Branson's Spaceplane Flight Boarding

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, met with Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group, who is about to embark on a space flight. It was a meeting of two 'eccentrics'?the first private space traveler and a dreamer of Mars conquest.

On the 11th, Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group (left), met with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, ahead of the first private space travel. (Photo by Branson Twitter)

On the 11th (local time), Branson announced on Twitter that he met Musk before boarding Virgin Galactic's spaceplane. He said, "I started the morning by meeting a friend before a big event. I feel good and ready."

Branson also shared a photo taken with Musk. Musk had promised to meet Branson the day before to watch the launch of Virgin Galactic's spaceplane.

Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group, is boarding a spaceplane. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Branson is aiming to become the world's first private space traveler by advancing his space travel plans significantly ahead of schedule, after Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, announced a space flight on the 20th via Blue Origin's rocket.

Musk's dream extends beyond electric cars to space. Through his company SpaceX, he has succeeded in launching reusable rockets and recently has been conducting test launches of the Mars migration spaceship, 'Spaceship.'

The 'Unity 2' that Branson will board to head to space [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, Branson was scheduled to take off on a spaceplane at 9 a.m. (Eastern Time) from the Spaceport America space center in New Mexico, USA, but the launch was delayed by 90 minutes due to bad weather overnight.

Virgin officials expressed confidence in the launch as the weather improved and released footage of Branson arriving at the launch site riding a bicycle.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.