Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson is set to fly into space on a Virgin Galactic test flight.

Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo, called VSS Unity, is a winged rocket ship/space plane – and aims to be in suborbital space, more than 50 miles above Earth, for about four minutes, according to Space.com.

The rocket launches today with a livestream starting at 2pm UK time – and is no doubt going to be eye-wateringly expensive.

After all, Virgin Galactic are set to win the so-called ‘billionaire space race’ to achieve commercial space travel – with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin not set to fly him to space until July 20.

But do we know how much will Richard Branson’s flight really cost?

Here’s what we can gather.

How much is Richard Branson’s space mission costing him?

The exact price of this Richard Branson’s adventure is unknown, however, GQ estimates it to be around $600 million (approximately £434 million).

With the rocket only sub-orbiting Earth for four minutes, that’s around a jaw-dropping £108.5 million for every 60 seconds.

The entire flight, from take off to landing, may only last for around 90 minutes.

The mission is being partly funded by the almost 700 people – reportedly including Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Justin Bieber – who have paid upfront for a ticket to become a ‘future astronaut’.

Tickets have been going for a reported £180,000 (or $250,000 USD).

While that ‘accessibility’ is currently only to the very wealthiest, Branson hopes that that price can come down as Virgin Galactic’s fleet expands and operations become more streamlined.

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