Galactic history

In 1971 Branson launched the first British discount record store.

In 1973 he helped form Virgin Records, which quickly became the principal label worldwide for punk and new wave.

In 1984 he became the majority backer of the airline that he renamed Virgin Atlantic Airways.

In 1986 Branson was part of a two-man team that set a record for a powerboat crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

Beginning with a single aircraft, the carrier succeeded despite fierce opposition from established airlines, and in 1992 Branson sold Virgin Records to raise additional money for Virgin Atlantic.

Efforts to conquer space heightened in 1996 when X Prize Foundation announced a $10 million award to any first privately owned spacecraft to fly at least 3 people into space twice within two weeks.

On the third attempt, made in December 1998, the pair were joined by American adventurer Steve Fossett, and they traveled some 8,200 miles (13,200 km), becoming the first to fly across the whole of Asia in a hot-air balloon, before being forced down off Hawaii.

Richard Branson was knighted in 1999.

He founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, with the intention of using a variation of SpaceShipOne, a reusable suborbital space airplane built by a company called Scaled Composites, for private leisure spaceflight.

Branson later helped fund Fossett’s record-setting flight in 2005, in which he completed the first solo nonstop circumnavigation of the world in an airplane.

In 2006 Branson sold Virgin Mobile, a wireless phone service, though he remained the largest shareholder of the company, which was later renamed Virgin Media, Inc.

The first of these was a test-stand explosion at California's Mojave Air and Space Port in July 2007, which resulted in the death of three Scaled Composites employees.

After the crush, no many developments were forthcoming, until July 2008 when Virgin Galactic revealed the WhiteKnightTwo to the public.

In 2011, for instance, Virgin Galactic collaborated with NASA to work on research flights.

Tragedy struck again on October 31, 2014, during a test flight of the first SpaceShipTwo vehicle prototype, VSS Enterprise.

The company also announced that the launch of a separate spin-off company in 2017, called Virgin Orbit, to deliver satellites into space aboard a modified Boeing 747 — the new firm launched its first payload of seven satellites in July this year.

The first test took place in May 2018 followed closely by another one in July 2018.