Saudi Arabia gave Richard Branson $1 billion to go to space

Saudi Arabia plans to invest $1 billion in Richard Branson’s private space venture Virgin Galactic, as well as its spinoff companies The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit. The country has the option of investing an additional $480 million in the future, too. The money will go toward Virgin’s space tourism program and help accelerate the development of the company’s new launch vehicle to send small satellites into orbit.
The deal is part of a new partnership announced today between Saudi Arabia and Virgin, which both signed a Memorandum of Understanding — a formal but non-binding agreement — for the investment. The intent is to draw the funds from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is used for domestic and international investments on behalf of the country’s government. The deal, however, is still pending and subject to regulatory approval by the US government.
For now, it’s unclear which companies will receive the bulk of the $1 billion funding, but two of Virgin’s space programs are in crucial stages of development right now. Virgin Galactic, which oversees Virgin’s human spaceflight program, is currently doing glide tests of its spaceplane the VSS Unity, which is designed to launch from an aircraft carrier and take people into space for a few brief minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic hopes to begin powered tests of Unity later this year, and possibly start sending people into space as soon as the end of 2018.