維珍創始人將搭自家火箭進太空

Richard Branson will be one of the first to ride on his company's SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

維珍銀河公司創始人理查德·布蘭森將成爲其公司“太空船2號”航天器的首批乘客中的一位。

Branson says he will take first trip into space soon.

布蘭森表示，不久即將開啓他的首次太空之旅。

"We're talking about months away, not years away – so it's close. There are exciting times ahead," he said in a program.

他在一個節目中說道：“我們指的是未來幾個月，而不是幾年。所以，很快就要到了，興奮的時刻即將到來。”

He said the astronaut training was going well so far, and he has increased his fitness by playing tennis four times a day.

布蘭森表示，目前他的宇航員訓練進展順利，自己現在每天打四次網球以提高體能。

The 67-year-old multi-millionaire has been investing in commercial space travel since 2004, when he founded space tourism company Virgin Galactic.

這位67歲的億萬富翁自2004年以來就一直在投資商業太空旅行，建立了太空旅行公司維珍銀河公司。

Branson, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are now in a race to get fare-paying passengers into space.

布蘭森、SpaceX創始人埃隆·馬斯克還有亞馬遜創始人傑夫·貝索斯，目前正在將付費的旅客送入太空上展開競爭。

"Ultimately, we have to do it safely. It's more a race with ourselves to make sure we have the craft that are safe to put people up there," Branson said.

布蘭森稱：“最終，我們必須要確保安全。這更像我們在與自己賽跑，確保能製造出足夠安全的載人航天器將人們送入太空。”