However, the recent “space” travel by the billionaire Richard Branson and his team from Virgin Galactic reached a height of only 86 kilometres. Now, famous astrophysicist and celebrity science communicator Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said that Branson did not actually travel to space.

Did Branson actually go into space?

Seventy-one-year-old Richard Branson went into space aboard his rocket ship on July 11 along with five crewmates beating out his rival Jeff Bezos. ... Branson became the first person to travel in his own spaceship, beating Jeff Bezos by nine days.

Did Branson leave the atmosphere?

After flying for an hour to an altitude of 15 kilometers, the spacecraft released the space plane carrying Richard Branson and the crew so that it could leave the Earth's atmosphere.