from space port america in new mexico headed to 50,000 feet, where it will detach the actual spacecraft, the vss unity, which is the one in the middle. it will take several minutes to climb to altitude. this is it for the release of the unity 22. we ll let you know the release moment as close as you can look at the sky over space port to see all the action. and obviously we will lose that shot fairly quickly. it will take seven minutes to get to 50,000 feet which is awfully fast, by the way, if you fly on commercial flights. commercial flight goes to 37, 40,000 feet generally speaking. takes a little longer than that to get to that speed. so, tom costello, this is going faster in the initial period. and then what happens when it gets to 50,000 feet. tell us what happens at 50,000 feet. reporter: so, as you take a look at that aircraft, you can
branson is making the trip this week. a week and a half ahead of the world s richest man jeff bezos, who plans to do the same on his own blue origin ship. nbc tom costello is there when the journey began a short time ago. he s at space port america in new mexico. an extraordinary day. what are we seeing now? reporter: at very moment we re at the point where we expect that unity will detach and drop from the mothership. the mothership eve. we expect at any moment now, roughly 36,000 to 45,000 feet. we re getting a live feed from virgin galactic. their own broadcast production. so we re watching very closely. at the moment, that feed would suggest they are still, in fact, attached. it will be any minute. when they do detach, the others on board, five others on board, including the two pilots, will
k colglazier came outside to tell everyone this historic space flight is soon to take off in 10 or 15 minutes. they re set to start their livestream of the event. of course there is an event of the event in typical branson style. there will also be a musical performance. certainly, i have to tell you the energy surrounding me, it just went up about seven notches, everybody knowing this space flight is about to take off. i want to remind the viewers what they re going to see in a couple minutes. vss unity is this spaceship that richard branson and the pilots are currently in. it s made into the mother ship eve. it will take off from the runway which is about 20 feet here from spaceport america, and it will climb about 20 feet. that s when eve will reach unity, and it will be in freefall before that rocket engine uunites, catapulting the
here to america to watch what has been nearly two decades in the making, fareed. it s so telling of the age. there was a time when it was governments who were battling to be in space, the united states and the soviet union, and now, of course, it s billionaires. i wanted to ask kristen fisher about this billionaire race. branson has essentially snuck this trip in before his fellow billionaire jeff bezos was able to lift off. why do you think that is, kristen? someone said to me branson is raising money, he needs cash, unlike jeff bezos who has hundreds of billions of dollars. so it was important for richard branson to emphasize the kind of pr dynamic here. reporter: well, look, virgin galactic is a business. it s a publicly traded company and they have been selling seats
there is also supplemental oxygen on board. the pilots during the flights, they wear oxygen masks. but the passengers, they don t have to, although they do have supplemental oxygen by their side if need be. also i had the opportunity to speak to mike moses a few days ago who is their head of safety, and he told me also in case of cabin depressurization, if there is a leak on board, they have four times the oxygen needed to keep the spaceship pressurized and make sure that this crew and the space flight participants stay safe. again, important to remember that despite the spectacle around us, it is still a test flight. the company is still in the test phases gathering data. and richard branson, his objective here is to test the astronaut experience. he s really been taking notes as he s gone through his training the last through days at spaceport america what he wants this to be like for those 600 passengers who have paid around