Richard Branson's Space Trip and Spicing Things Up

04-07-2007 15:19

If the Spice Girls need some help with their comeback, they should give gazillionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson a call.Branson, who founded Virgin Records and is now worth an estimated $7.8 billion, has full confidence in the quintet's comeback. "I think they'll get the young kids again," he tells me. "I remember seeing the early Spice Girls, and it's great fun. They're really entertaining. I think they'll do well."I met up with Branson last night at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel during the Rock the Kasbah event, where his mum, Eve, was being honored by his charitable arm, Virgin Unite, for her work improving the lives of people in rural Morocco. So, what does Sir Richard think of David and Victoria Beckham's move to Hollywood? Their success isn't a sure thing, because it all depends on America's interest in soccer, he opined. "I don't think they can ever be quite as huge as they were in Britain, but I'm sure that their agents will give it a good try," he said.None of the Spice Girls' or the Beckhams' projects can compare to Virgin Galactic, Branson's newest endeavor of commercial suborbital spaceflights. "We'll be unveiling what the spaceship looks like in about three months," he said. "And the spaceship will come out of the hangar in about seven to eight months."Sir Richard won't be the only passenger on the ship's maiden voyage. Get this he's planning on bringing along his son, Sam, 21, and daughter, Holly, 25.And there's more. Two other passengers will be Branson's mom and his dad, Ted. "My father will be 91 and my mother will be 88," Branson said. "They really are jet-setters."

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