Another billionaire could heat up the space race.
What Happened: Elon Musk watched the Unity 22 fly to space from the Virgin Galactic Holdings SPCE Spaceport America headquarters in New Mexico Sunday.
Branson confirmed to The Sunday Times that Tesla Inc TSLA and SpaceX founder Musk has reserved a ticket for a future Virgin Galactic flight.
“Elon’s a friend and maybe I’ll travel on one of his ships one day,” Branson said.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch a private astronaut mission in September.
Related Link: Richard Branson Hangs Out With Elon Musk Before Historic Spaceflight
Why It’s Important: Virgin Galactic has 600 reservations from customers willing to spend $200,000 to $250,000 to go to space with the company. Reservations include Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Musk could be the biggest name for Virgin Galactic’s reservations and shows some support in the company considering SpaceX could someday be a competitor for space tourism.
The reservation by Musk could also fuel the space battle between billionaires with Musk choosing Virgin Galactic over Blue Origin, the company created by Amazon.com's AMZN Jeff Bezos.
Musk and Bezos have battled over their satellite businesses recently.
SPCE Price Action: Virgin Galactic shares fell 17% Monday to $40.69 on news of an offering.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson on Flickr.
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