Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson said Thursday his spaceship has just a few more test flights before he jumps on board for the first tourist trip.
The British billionaire celebrated his 69th birthday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center during 50th anniversary festivities for humanity's first moon landing. His guests were 100 other aspiring astronauts who have put down deposits to launch into space with Virgin Galactic. Like Branson, many in the crowd were inspired to fly into space by Apollo 11, which he called "the most audacious journey of all time."
Branson said three or four test flights will be conducted from New Mexico, beginning this fall, before engineers allow him to fly. The two suborbital test flights to date — conducted in December and February over California's Mojave Desert — provided several minutes of weightlessness.
Richard Branson makes remarks during a luncheon attended by 100 Virgin Galactic ticket holders, to mark his 69th birthday and in recognition of the Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Thursday, July 18, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP PhotoJohn Raoux)
Branson declined to say when his flight might happen.
"My track record for giving dates has been so abysmal that I'm not giving dates anymore. But I think months, not years," he told The Associated Press.
The company is in the process of moving from Southern California to Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert near Truth or Consequences, which has set everything back four months, according to Branson. The test pilots need to practice landing there, he said, before passengers tag along.
Richard Branson makes remarks during a luncheon attended by 100 Virgin Galactic ticket holders, to mark his 69th birthday and in recognition of the Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Thursday, July 18, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP PhotoJohn Raoux)
"I certainly won't go into space before brave test pilots feel 100% comfortable that we've checked every box," Branson said.
In 2014, the company's experimental space plane broke apart during a California test flight, killing the co-pilot.
The winged spaceship is dropped in flight from a custom-designed airplane; once free, it fires its rocket motor to hurtle toward space before gliding back to Earth like NASA's old space shuttles. The latest test flight by VSS Unity reached an altitude of 56 miles (90 kilometers) while traveling at three times the speed of sound.
Richard Branson makes remarks during a luncheon attended by 100 Virgin Galactic ticket holders, to mark his 69th birthday and in recognition of the Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Thursday, July 18, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP PhotoJohn Raoux)
About 600 people, ranging from their teens to early 90s, have reserved a seat, according to a company spokeswoman. Tickets are $250,000.
Maryann Barry bought a ticket less than a month ago. She grew up near Cape Canaveral during the 1960s, and her late brother worked on NASA's Saturn V moon rockets. "This is my life coming full circle actually," said Barry, 58, who works for the Girl Scouts in Orlando.
When asked if she'll be afraid, Houston violinist Debbie Moran, 62, said she's trying to do everything she's ever wanted to do in life before her spaceflight in another few years.
"We all know it's not the safest thing in the world," she said. "I still have not told my mother."
"Everybody is fearful. But the point is you have to overcome the fear to get the excitement," said Arvinder Bahal, 73, a real estate investor from Boston who can't wait to see the world from afar without boundaries.
Branson said he did not remember his 19th birthday in London on July 18, 1969. But Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moon landing on July 20, 1969, was forever etched in his memory. Watching those first lunar footsteps on a little black and white TV, with his sisters and parents in the English countryside, was a turning point for him. He said it's why Virgin Galactic exists today.
He lifted a glass of Tang — the powdered orange drink made famous on America's pioneering spaceflights — as he made "a toast to space past, space present and, even more important for us all in this room, space future."
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's only two weeks into the new year, and President Donald Trump has already claimed control of Venezuela, escalated threats to seize Greenland and flooded American streets with masked immigration agents.
And that's not even counting an unprecedented criminal investigation at the Federal Reserve, a cornerstone of the national economy that Trump wants to bend to his will.
Even for a president who thrives on chaos, Trump is generating a stunning level of turmoil as voters prepare to deliver their verdict on his leadership in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Each decision carries tremendous risks, from the possibility of an overseas quagmire to undermining the country's financial system, but Trump has barreled forward with a ferocity that has rattled even some of his Republican allies.
“The presidency has gone rogue,” said historian Joanne B. Freeman, a Yale University professor. She said it's something "we haven’t seen in this way before.”
Trump seems undeterred by the potential blowback. Although he doesn't always follow through, he seems intent on doubling and tripling down whenever possible.
“Right now I’m feeling pretty good," Trump said Tuesday in Detroit. His speech was ostensibly arranged to refocus attention on the economy, which the president claimed is surging despite lingering concerns about higher prices.
However, he couldn't resist lashing out at Jerome Powell, who leads the Federal Reserve and has resisted Trump's pressure to lower interest rates.
"That jerk will be gone soon,” Trump said.
Republican leaders have overwhelmingly rallied behind Trump throughout his turbulent second term. But new cracks began to appear this week immediately after Powell disclosed on Sunday that the Federal Reserve was facing a criminal investigation over his testimony about the central bank's building renovations.
Over the last year, the Justice Department has already pursued criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, among other Trump adversaries.
But going after Powell, who helps set the nation's monetary policy, appeared to be a step too far for some conservatives. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, a fierce Trump defender, was unusually critical.
“It just feels like most on Wall Street do not want to see this kind of fight,” she said during her Monday show. “The president has very good points, certainly. But Wall Street doesn’t want to see this kind of investigation.”
The Federal Reserve plays a key role in the economy by calibrating interest rates, which Trump insists should be lower. However, reducing the institution's independence could backfire and cause borrowing costs to increase instead.
At the same time, Trump has decided to expand the United States' role in complicated foreign entanglements — a seeming departure from the “America First” foreign policy that he promised on the campaign trail.
No move was more significant than the U.S. military operation earlier this month to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from his country. In the months leading up to the attack, Trump frequently insisted he was targeting Maduro because of his role in the drug trade. He has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as an economic opportunity for the U.S.
Trump has said the U.S. will start controlling the sale of some Venezuelan oil, and he declared that the South American nation will be run from Washington. He even posted a meme declaring himself the “acting president of Venezuela.”
Trump has also threatened the leadership of Cuba and Iran, while insisting that the U.S. will control Greenland “ one way or the other ” — a position that has raised questions about U.S. relations with European allies. Greenland belongs to Denmark, a NATO member.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday morning. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Trump's immigration crackdown continues to spark confrontations in American cities. Some have turned deadly, such as when a federal agent shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis.
Administration officials have said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer acted in self-defense, accusing Good of trying to hit him with her car. But that explanation has been widely disputed by local officials and others based on videos circulating online.
The incident came after Trump dispatched 2,000 immigration agents to Minnesota, responding to reports of fraud involving the state's Somali community.
On Tuesday, Trump said the administration was targeting “thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners, dangerous people from foreign mental institutions and insane asylums, and other deadly criminals too dangerous to even mention.”
The Trump administration's moves have created “chaos, confusion and uncertainty,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who leads the Democratic Mayors Association.
“There’s so much uncertainty across my city right now. The ICE raids in Minneapolis have really shocked the consciousness of many of my residents, and we’re trying to do everything we can to calm that concerns and quell those fears," Bibb said. “But people don’t feel like the world is getting better. People don’t feel like the economy is getting better.”
Voters across the nation will have their next chance to weigh in on Trump's leadership at the ballot box this November, when Republicans hope to retain control of Congress for the last two years of his presidency.
Democratic campaign officials in Washington are focused largely on the economy in their early political messaging. Most voters maintain a decidedly negative view on the issue, despite Trump's rosy assessment this week.
Just 37% of U.S. adults approved of how the president is handling the economy, according to a January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. His economic approval, which was previously a strength, has been low throughout his second term.
“Donald Trump’s visit to Michigan puts a glaring, unflattering spotlight on how he and House Republicans have failed to address the affordability crisis," said Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads the Democrats' House campaign arm.
But some activists are frustrated that their party's leadership isn't focusing more on Trump's unprecedented power grabs.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he expects Trump's actions to get worse as his second and final term nears its conclusion.
“Folks at the end of last year who thought he would become a typical lame duck and limp toward a midterm loss have a framework for understanding this moment that is drastically outdated,” Levin said. “Authoritarians don’t willingly give up power. When weakened and cornered they lash out.”
Trump has repeatedly insisted he's only doing what voters elected him to do, and his allies in Washington remain overwhelmingly united behind him.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels predicted that voters will reward the party this year.
“Voters elected President Trump to put American lives first — and that’s exactly what he’s doing," she said. "President Trump is making our country safer, and the American people will remember it in November.”
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
