Virgin Galactic to reach space in weeks

Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has said that Virgin Galactic is “weeks” away from its first trip into space.

“We should be in space within weeks, not months. And then we will be in space with myself in months and not years,” the firm’s founder and chief executive told news website CNBC.

He said the firm would be taking people into space “not too long after” that.

Sir Richard is in a race with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon to send the first fee-paying passengers into space.

He founded the commercial spaceflight company in 2004.

Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic completed a supersonic test flight of its SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship.

The flight was the first return to the air for the company since a fatal crash in 2014.