Richard Branson jealous of Elon Musk's rocket launch

In an interview this week, Richard Branson teased that Virgin Galactic may have something up its sleeve to keep up with SpaceX

Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX made history after successfully launching the world’s most powerful rocket into space.

Now, Richard Branson, whose company Virgin Galactic is one of SpaceX’s main rivals, has revealed that he is ‘jealous’ of Musk’s achievement.

Speaking in an interview with CNN, Musk described the launch as ‘extraordinary’, but added that he was ‘a little bit jealous.’

Branson said: “Elon and his team, it’s extraordinary what they achieved. They all did just fantastic."

But the Virgin Galactic CEO teased that Virgin Galactic may have something up its sleeve to keep up with SpaceX.

Branson added: “Just watch this space. We’ll hopefully be coming out with something very exciting over the next few months.

"We’re thinking of what we can do to upstage SpaceX.”

Virgin Galactic faces stiff competition from both SpaceX and Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos’ contender) to be the first private space company to send tourists into space.

Branson said: “Virgin Galactic, if it’s not in space in the next few months we’ll be very disappointed, and if it’s not in space with people on it we’ll be very disappointed.

“I hope that Virgin Galactic will be the first of the three entrepreneurs hoping to get people in space to get there.”