The British billionaire and the founder of Virgin Group Richard Branson said that he is planning to travel to space within the next four to five months on his own Virgin Galactic spaceship.
The 68-year-old business magnate told AFP during an event, organized to honour Virgin Galactic at the Air and Space Museum in Washington on Thursday, February 7 that "My wish is to go up on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing that's what we're working on."
The spaceflight company within the Virgin Group, called Virgin Galactic is one of two companies, along with Blue Origin that is currently under development before sending passengers to space for a few minutes.
As per the reports, the company is focusing on its aim to send hundreds or thousands of people on these short "suborbital" flights. But the spacecraft would not get high enough to orbit the earth.
It can be expected that compared to SpaceX's mission to send the Japanese billionaire to the moon by 2023, the Virgin Group's space program would be shorter and more affordable.
However, for the first time, the Virgin Galactic flew 50 miles above the earth in December that is considered the edge of space. The spaceship of Virgin Galactic has named as 'SpaceShipTwo', which needs two pilots. The company said that it will be able to carry at least six passengers along with those two pilots.
Earlier, one of the wealthiest British businessman Branson had announced the dated for the first trip to space, but it did not materialise. However, this time he claimed that the preparations are in their final stages and added, "By July we should have done enough testing."
But he doesn't want to promise anything until the team confirms that they are 100 percent happy. Branson said that he believes that the development team will be ready for the clients by the end of the year.
As per the billionaire, the next test of SpaceShipTwo would take place on February 20, depending on the weather condition on that day.
