After his Virgin Galactic spaceflight, Richard Branson now hopes to fly with Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson prepares to spray champagne after flying with a crew in Virgin Galactic’s passenger rocket plane VSS Unity to the edge of space at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., July 11, 2021.

Sir Richard wants to fly with Musk and trade flights with him.

I hope I will be able to go up on one of his spaceships one day, and he will be able to go up on one of ours.

In July of 2021, he achieved his goal of reaching space. The first-time astronauts of Virgin Galactic's Unity 22 flight crew were honored by the FAA with wings for crossing the 80 kilometer (50 mile) altitude mark.

The two billionaires are good friends and Musk bought a Virgin Galactic ticket a long time ago.

Virgin Galactic's shares are down more than 30% this year.

Virgin Galactic is in the midst of a lengthy refurbishment process. The space tourism service was delayed to the fourth quarter of this year after the company stood down from its test flight campaign. The company said in February that the project is on schedule and will be completed in the third quarter.

Michael Colglazier, who was appointed in July 2020, has made changes to the structure and brand. The company revealed a new logo, with a purple outline of its spaceship, after Chamath Palihapitiya stepped down from the board.

The Virgin Group's largest shareholder, Richard Branson, has decreased his ownership of Virgin Galactic in four bulk stock sales since the company went public.

The sort of heavy-lifting side of my job is done by me. He promised that he will always be involved with the company.

I had a long list of things I was planning to do with Michael, so it doesn't look like I'm leaving here.