Richard Branson is set to launch himself into space, nine days before Jeff Bezos.
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 livestream will begin at 7 a.m. ET on Sunday through Virgin Galactic’s website and the Virgin Galactic Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook channels.
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.
It’s not clear what Colbert has in mind for the stream but we imagine the commentary will be pretty fun, considering the spectacularly brutal Bezos jokes Colbert has dropped of late. Branson and Colbert have known each other for years— the pair threw water in each others’ faces on The Colbert Report in 2007. Colbert once challenged Branson to a sailing duel, and Branson took off his pants on The Late Show in 2017 to demonstrate recycled plastic fashion, sure.
Who knows what’ll happen on Sunday? The sky’s absolutely not the limit.
