Richard Bronson said that last year Elon Musk made a surprise visit to his home in New Mexico around 2:30 a.m. to wish him luck on his first space flight and that he saw Elon Musk in the kitchen.
Branson told of the night he woke up in the middle of the night to find the SpaceX CEO barefoot in the downstairs kitchen with his baby X Æ A-12 after a staff member let him inside.
I think it was around 2:30. I got up and jumped out of bed two hours ago, and that’s when I really realized I took the wrong time,’ Branson told the newspaper.
Elon Musk told Branson that he went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and found Branson but Elon decided to surprise us. He was there with his child, and he was about to wake up one night, Branson said of Elon Musk, who doesn’t really sleep through the night and wakes up from his sleep.
Elon Musk later joined Branson at the New Mexico spaceport, before the latter soared above to experience weightlessness for his 90-minute Virgin Galactic, beating Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flight by nine days. Virgin Galactic’s next flight is this summer and Branson said he would be “happy” to fly Musk for a while, but he clearly has his hands full at the moment.
Elon Musk has said he would love to have a ride on Virgin Galactic as SpaceX focuses more on orbital spaceflight. Elon Musk previously told the newspaper that there is a big difference that the public doesn’t quite appreciate between orbital and sub-orbital space flight and that to do orbital space flight you need a terminal velocity 25 times the speed of sound – Mach 25 is needed and you can get away with a terminal velocity of Mach 3 when sub-orbital.
Elon Musk said about Branson what Branson is doing is cool and it’s great and I actually bought a ticket and I’m asking for a date and I’m not sure when but I’m on this thing But I want to fly.
Branson told Times News that Elon Musk is a tremendous and smart person and he is even more inspired. Branson praised him, saying, “I admire his ingenuity and his willingness to take calculated risks.” And he also said that he overcame failure on many occasions and persevered and that he is the Henry Ford of his generation.