space travel to paying customers. rachel crane has more on that. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into su suborbital space. astronaut 001, richard branson. reporter: a launch, nearly two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? um, well, i managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years, since we ve started building spaceships and mother ships and space bots and all these things. and i finally got the call from our chief engineer saying that every single box had been ticked on the safety aspect. and that i was um um would i like to go to space? and i hit i hit the roof, i was so excited. reporter: the virgin galactic rocket-powered space plane is set to take off sunday from new mexico. the mother ship will release the
cosmic date with destiny on his own rocket, later this month. and do be sure to tune into cnn s live coverage of the flight at 9:00 a.m., eastern time. cnn s rachel crane talked to the soon-to-be space traveler about his out-of-this-world event and the risks involved. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001, richard branson. reporter: a launch, nearly-two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? um, well, i managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years, since we ve started building spaceships and mother ships and space ports and all these things. and i finally got the call from chief engineer saying that every single box had been ticked on the safety aspect.
his team a safe and successful flight. branson s mission starts in a bit more than five hours from now. the billionaire will take off in a space plane built by his company, virgin galactic. if he is successful, branson will beat bezos, who plans to soar into space in his blue origin rocket by nine days. cnn s rachel crane talked to the soon to be space traveler about his out-of-this-world event and the risk involved. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001 richard branson. reporter: a launch nearly two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? well, i ve managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years since we started building spaceships and mother ships and motherboards and all these
in less than 24 hours, richard branson is set to head into space on a rocket plane made by his own company, virgin galactic. if successful, he will beat his fellow billionaire, jeff bezos, to the final frontier by nine days. cnn s rachel crane has the latest on this new leg in the space race. reporter: the countdown is on. and in just hours, entrepreneur, richard branson, hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001, richard branson. reporter: a launch, nearly-two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel? um, well, i ve managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years since we ve started building spaceships and mother ships and space ports and all
this voyage has been two decades in the making. the rocket powered space plane will fly from new mexico to the edge of space at 2,400 miles an hour. branson is hoping this will usher in a new era of space tourism. my mission statement is to turn the dream of space travel into a reality for my grandchildren, for your grandchildren, for everyone. the fact is there is plenty that can go wrong with today s launch. but as cnn s rachel crane explains, branson believes the risk is worth the reward. reporter: the countdown is on. in just hours entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut 001 richard branson. reporter: a launch nearly two