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“I was once a kid with a dream”: Richard Branson blasts into space

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Well he finally did it. 17 years after Richard Branson first launched Virgin Galactic, the thrill-seeking billionaire has taken to the skies and reached space

In his boldest adventure yet, the 70 year old Richard Branson took off for the first stage of the flight.

On the ground, about 500 people watched on, including Richard Branson’s wife, children and grandchildren.

On board were his five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company.

Richard Branson and his five crew mates.
Richard Branson and his five crew mates.

The space plane detached from the mother ship at an altitude of about 13km and fired its engine, reaching the edge of space about 88km up.

After a few minutes of weightlessness for the crew, the space plane is began its decent, set to end with a glide to a runway landing.

Richard Branson couldn’t contain his excitement, as he spoke on the journey back to earth.

Richard Branson’s message to children from space

He thanked his crew and remembered all those who had worked on the mammoth project.

After a decade of promises, the moment finally came for Richard Branson to unveil his spaceship for the people.

He said on board:: “To all you kids down there, I was once a kid with a dream. Now I’m up here, in a space ship!”

Customer spaceflight experience

As Branson took to space onboard Virgin Galactic, his official role for the journey will be “evaluating customer spaceflight experience”.

And that’s an important role – after all anyone who wants to rise Virgin Galactic will need to part with a quarter of a million dollars first, and that price is expected to rise.

Along with the two pilots, there is room for six passengers with a flight time of about an hour and a half.

The Virgin Galactic rocket ship detached from the mothership.
The Virgin Galactic rocket ship detached from the mothership.

The spaceship will just go over the 82 kilometres, which is where the US recognises someone as having been into space.

Then, passengers will get to experience about six minutes of weightlessness and seeing the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space.

They will then descend, landing on a runway much like the old space shuttle or a normal passenger plane.

The new space race

Richard Branson’s adventure will pre-empt next week’s first flight for Blue Origin, as Jeff Bezos launches his space dreams.

Jeff and Blue Origin are promising a completely different experience for their customers.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard, which has no pilots and room for six passengers, reaches more than 100 kilometres high, which is the internationally recognised boundary of space.

Passengers on Blue Origin will get about three minutes to float around and feel like they are in space.

Might be half the time, but the price is 50,000 dollars cheaper than flying on Virgin Galactic.

But either way, the expensive thrill ride marks the beginning of earth’s commercial passenger trips into space.

Virgin Galactic doesn’t expect to start flying customers before next year.

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Business

Musk’s Empire

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A plane arrives in China. On board, one of the world’s richest men. He’s come to convince authorities that he should be allowed to set up a brand new factory.

He is Elon Musk.

And this is his first trip to China in three years.

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Business

Amazon employees walk out to protest office policies

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Staff at warehousing giant Amazon have walked off the job to protest the company’s return-to-office program

Over 1,900 Amazon employees pledged to protest globally over proposed changes to the company’s climate policy, layoffs and a return-to-office mandate.

The activist group behind the rally is known as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), who are seeking a greater voice for employees.

“Our goal is to change Amazon’s cost/benefit analysis on making harmful, unilateral decisions that are having an outsized impact on people of color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable people,” organisers said.

Over 100 people gathered at the heart of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters on Wednesday. The company said it had not witnessed any other demonstrations.

AECJ said the walkout comes after Amazon made moves “in the wrong direction”.

The company recently has recently overturned a desire to make all Amazon shipments net zero for carbon emissions by 2030.

The company maintains a pledge on climate change.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told Reuters the company is pursuing a strategy to cut carbon emissions.

“For companies like ours who consume a lot of power, and have very substantial transportation, packaging, and physical building assets, it’ll take time to accomplish.”

AECJ protesters also sought support for the 27,000 staff, who had lost their jobs in recent months —around 9 per cent of Amazon’s global workforce.

The company has also mandated a return-to-office program.

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Business

The Great Resignation vs. The Great Burnout

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As employees recover from the height of the pandemic, the Great Resignation has come to light

 
The pandemic saw the term ‘the great resignation’ coined as thousands of people resigned from their jobs across the U.S. in 2021 and 2022.

Karin Reed, the author of ‘Suddenly Hybrid said the great resignation was a period of employees taking control of their future.

“A lot of people realised in their current environment they were not happy with what they were doing with their job. They chose to vote with their feet and go elsewhere,

In other parts of the world, a spike in resignations was not reported.

However, a higher degree of workers began reporting post-Covid burnout, as they made a return to the office.

“There’s been a blurring of the lines. You have work that’s not confined by a physical space.

“Instead of closing the computer and walk away, our computer is in the next room.”

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