Richard Branson blasted into space on Sunday aboard a rocket built by his space tourism company Virgin Galactic, in a landmark moment for the space tourism industry he has long dreamed of creating.
The British billionaire was part of a crew of six people on board the rocket ship VSS Unity, which soared into the skies over New Mexico for a short, sub-orbital flight.
Video footage broadcast by Virgin Galactic showed the small white spacecraft separating from the larger mothership at an altitude of around 45,000 feet before the pilots ignited the ship’s single rocket engine, sending it streaking into the blackness of space some 86 kilometres above the Earth.
“Seventeen years of hard work to get us this far,” said a smiling Mr Branson as he congratulated his team on the trip back.
Those on board had a brief experience of weightlessness, before the craft glided to a landing on the same runway at Spaceport America that it took off from. The entire flight, from takeoff to landing, lasted about an hour.
Mr Branson, 70, founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 with the dream of making space travel more accessible and is betting on building the experience into a billion-dollar a year business.
The maverick businessman’s participation in Sunday's flight fitted well with his public image as the daredevil executive whose Virgin brands - which include airlines and music companies - have long been associated with hair-raising exploits involving hot air balloons and sailing boats.
In making the successful flight, Mr Branson also beat Jeff Bezos to the honour of becoming the first person to reach space on a rocket built by their own company.
The Amazon founder, who has also set his sights on sub-orbital space tourism, is planning to make his own trip to space on board his company’s New Shepard rocket on July 20.
The competition between the two entrepreneurs was popularised as a “billionaire space race,” and Mr Bezos’s company continued to disparage the Virgin Galactic flight in the days before Sunday’s flight, prompting a debate over where the boundary of space actually lies.
At 85.9 kilometres, Mr Branson’s flight met the definition used by Nasa and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which say outer space begins 80km above Earth.
But he did not cross the Karman line, another definition that says space begins at 100km, which Mr Bezos has set out to cross.
"New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name," Blue Origin said in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.
Mr Branson has insisted, however, that he and Mr Bezos are not engaged in a personal contest to beat one another into space.
Virgin is planning to carry out at least two further test flights of its rocket ship this year before regular commercial operations begin in 2022.
Demand for tickets is apparently strong, with several hundred wealthy would-be citizen astronauts already having reserved seats, which cost around $250,000.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Branson revealed that his fellow billionaire and space entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also watched the flight in person, had reserved a seat on a future flight.
Another major player in the emerging space tourism industry, Mr Musk’s company is planning its first all-civilian space flight for later this year.
Proving Virgin Galactic’s service is safe was also a key objective of Sunday’s flight.
Its flight programme has suffered several setbacks throughout its development.
An earlier prototype of its space plane crashed during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
Mr Branson's role in Sunday's test flight was to "evaluate the private astronaut experience," Virgin Galactic said in the live-stream.
Also on board were the spaceplane's two veteran test pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, and three mission specialists: Beth Moses, the company's chief astronaut instructor; Virgin Galactic's lead operations engineer Colin Bennett; and Sirisha Bandla, its vice president of government relations.
Sunday’s flight was hailed as a watershed moment for the space tourism sector, which the Swiss-based investment bank UBS has estimated could be worth as much as $3 billion a year by 2030.
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
MATCH INFO
What: Brazil v South Korea
When: Tonight, 5.30pm
Where: Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae
The%20Super%20Mario%20Bros%20Movie
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Aaron%20Horvath%20and%20Michael%20Jelenic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Chris%20Pratt%2C%20Anya%20Taylor-Joy%2C%20Charlie%20Day%2C%20Jack%20Black%2C%20Seth%20Rogen%20and%20Keegan-Michael%20Key%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer