Former chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic Holdings, George Whitesides, will fly to space on the aerospace company’s next test spaceflight, CNBC reported on Friday.
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic, flew to space earlier this month, beating Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos to the final frontier. Branson announced the news about Whitesides throughout a party in New Mexico on July 11, following his personal spaceflight, the report stated.
Lori Garver, a former deputy administrator of NASA was present at the party and told CNBC that Branson stated, “George will be leading our next flight.”
Branson, whose spaceflight marked a symbolic milestone for the venture he began 17 years ago, touted the mission as a precursor to a new era of space tourism.
Bezos, along with 3 other individuals like the world’s oldest space traveler and astronaut, Wally Funk, flew into space just days later, aboard his personal space enterprise Blue Origin’s rocket.
Virgin Galactic did not promptly respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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