Richard Branson has quipped that he is ready to creat the UK’s first female space trip with Virgin Galactic on Tuesday. 

The British billionaire, 74, was approached by BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James to send UK celebrities into space after Blue Origin successfully launched their rocket into space this week. 

The American stars chosen to board the trip to space were singer Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancé Lauren Sanchez, CBS co-host Gayle King, filmmaker Kieranne Flynn, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyne.

Now Greg has pitched for This Morning presenter Alison Hammond, Loose Women’s Denise Welch, TOWIE icon Gemma Collins, actress Natalie Cᴀssidy and Countdown star Carol Vorderman to be launched into space by Richard’s company.

Taking to his Instagram Story, Richard re-shared Greg’s idea and said he is ready to create ‘Astronaut 00Hun’.

He penned: ‘@Greg_james I’m Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut 001. Time for Astronaut 00Hun @virgingalactic?’

Richard Branson has quipped that he is ready to created the UK’s first female astronaut space trip with Virgin Galactic on Tuesday

The British billionaire, 74, was approached by BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James to send UK celebrities into space after Blue Origin successfully launched their rocket into space this week

After following Greg on social media, he sent Richard a message which read: ‘Dear Sir Richard Brans-Hun… Thanks for following. Glad you love the idea. Thank you for your enthusiasm towards Air Force Hun. 

‘You and I have a lot of shared pᴀssions. Music, trains, planes and mad but successful ideas…

‘We’ve noticed you’ve got big plans for 2026 and you’re currently testing. Can we get the Huns on one of those flights. Katy [Perry] trained in two days, our lot are way more dedicated than her. Let’s make this happen?

‘Chat soon, it could be one small step for man, one giant leap for hun-kind. Greg x’. 

To Greg’s surprise, Richard quickly replied and said ‘he would be up for doing some kind of astronaut experience with us.’

Richard penned: ‘As we embark upon these giant leaps for hunkind, why don’t we first start with an Astronaut Experience for you all, whilst we continue to reach for the stars…’

Greg was later joined on his Breakfast show on Wednesday by Gemma who said she had ‘barely slept’ over the news and joked that she would be getting all the brand deals.

She said: ‘I’ve barely slept last night I’ve been waiting for the call from Richard. I couldn’t think of a better five.

(L-R) Kerianne Flynn, Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King and Amanda Nguyen went to space in Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-31 rocket on Monday 

Now Greg has pitched for (L-R) This Morning’s Alison Hammond, actress Natalie Cᴀssidy, Loose Women’s Denise Welch and TOWIE’s Gemma Collins to be launched into space 

Taking to his Instagram Story, Richard re-shared Greg’s idea and said he is ready to create ‘Astronaut 00Hun’. He penned: ‘@Greg_james I’m Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut 001. Time for Astronaut 00Hun @virgingalactic?’

After following Greg on social media, he sent Richard a message which read: ‘We’ve noticed you’ve got big plans for 2026 and you’re currently testing. Can we get the Huns on one of those flights’

To Greg’s surprise, Richard quickly replied and said ‘he would be up for doing some kind of astronaut experience with us’ 

‘This is a brand money making deal coming but just remember I’m claustrophobic.’ 

Greg later joined Alison on This Morning as she hosted the show with Dermot O’Leary and admitted she is a ‘bit scared’ now Richard is involved. 

She said: ‘You know what I was kind of joking but then when it goes serious I’m a bit scared, like if Richard Brandson actually wants to do it.

‘I would rather us go on a night out with everybody instead. Carol is up for it, I think Gemma might be the first to brick it though’. 

Elsewhere Denise joked that she will be ‘taking hand luggage only’ while Carol said, ‘I bloody love this’. 

Last month it was revealed that Richard’s dream of launching regular commercial flights into space is inching ever closer to fruition, after Virgin Galactic announced it is set to ramp up production of its latest spacecraft.

Work will begin on the company’s Delta SpaceShip at a facility in Phoenix, Arizona, with test flights predicted to take place in spring 2026 before the first public trips get underway next summer.

The new vehicles will be designed to accommodate six paying pᴀssengers, two more than the previous spacecraft, which last flew in June 2024 – a hiatus that has created a backlog of 700 paying pᴀssengers for the flights.

Greg was later joined on his Breakfast show by Gemma who said she had ‘barely slept’ over the news and joked that she would be getting all the brand deals

Elsewhere Denise joked that she will be ‘taking hand luggage only’ while Carol said, ‘I bloody love this’

Greg later joined Alison on This Morning as she hosted the show and admitted: ‘You know what I was kind of joking but then when it goes serious I’m a bit scared, like if Richard Brandson actually wants to do it’

Work will begin on Virgin Galactic’s Delta SpaceShip at a facility in Phoenix, Arizona in April 2025 amid expectations that the first public suborbital trips will begin next summer

Richard has been dreaming of launching regular commercial flights into space since 2004, when he founded Virgin Galactic, but the venture has been beset by issues

Read More Katy Perry shares sweet moment with her daughter Daisy, 4, just before blasting off into space

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic’s marketing blurb proudly announces that the company is ‘launching a new space age, where all are invited along for the ride’. 

Reaching for the stars comes at a price, however, with tickets for the space excursions, which will blast off from Spaceport America in New Mexico, expected to come in at $600,000 (£477,000) each.

Despite that hefty price tag, executives at Virgin Galactic, which has previously stated that it hopes to construct up to half a dozen Delta-class ships annually, have expressed confidence that the backlog of customers will be cleared within a year once operations resume.

‘The production and launch timeline for the new ships remains on track, with our first commercial research spaceflight expected in the summer of 2026, and the first private astronaut spaceflight in the fall of 2026,’ said Michael Colglazier, the company’s chief executive. 

‘We are able to be more specific with projecting our timelines because we now have line of sight to the delivery dates of each and every tool and part that supports ᴀssembly.’

The company hopes to run two flights a week by early 2027 – two decades later than originally hoped – as it seeks to boost its coffers following a history of false starts.

Most notable among those were the explosion that killed three workers during testing of a rocket propulsion system in 2007 and the crash of a spacecraft during a test flight in 2014 in which a pilot died.

Such setbacks have not deterred other wealthy entrepreneurs from pursuing space tourism ambitions, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the Tesla and Spacex supremo Elon Musk.

Musk has seen encouraging results from test flights of his Starship, the biggest and most powerful spacecraft ever produced, but Blue Origin, the rocket company Bezos founded in 2000, is reportedly set to cut about 1,400 jobs as it seeks to make up ground on its rivals.