And while we can’t all enjoy a seat beside a billionaire, awkwardly small-talking while leaving the Earth behind, we can at least tune into the livestream hosted by a familiar face.
The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert is set to host Virgin’s global livestream of the Unity 22 launch on Sunday, July 11. The late night show host was personally invited by Branson himself during a Twitter exchange on Thursday, however staged it may have been, who cares?
Colbert played the ol’ spam folder invite card, and reader, it worked.
The Unity 22 mission will be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, along with Branson himself, who is testing the private astronaut experience — things like seat comfort, how weightlessness feels, and Earth views from the spaceship (we think they’ll be pretty decent). It’ll be the 22nd flight test for VSS Unity following May’s launch and Virgin Galactic’s fourth crewed spaceflight.