This weekend, Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, is attempting to become the first billionaire to strap himself to a rocket branded with the company he founded and hurtle himself into space.

If all goes as planned, Branson’s flight will beat fellow space baron Jeff Bezos’s trip by just nine days. (Branson swears he didn’t time his trip to beat Bezos but, like, come on.)

The British mogul will take off about a week before his 71st birthday, from a facility in a small town called — I kid you not — Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

“The lucrative, high-stakes chase for space tourists will unfold on the fringes of space — 55 miles to 66 miles (88 kilometers to 106 kilometers) up, pitting … Branson against the world’s richest man,” reports the Associated Press.

“Branson is due to take off Sunday from New Mexico, launching with two pilots and three other employees aboard a rocket plane carried aloft by a double-fuselage aircraft.

“Bezos departs nine days later from West Texas, blasting off in a fully automated capsule with three guests: his brother, an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer who’s waited six decades for a shot at space and the winner of a $28 million charity auction.”

Anyway, it goes without saying that this is a big stunt with countless ways to go belly up.

Virgin Galactic has multiple safety redundancies in place, and it’s completed 20 test flights, though only three of those of have reached the edge of space. And it’s hard to imagine Branson won’t be sitting on that desert launch pad in ToC (as I imagine the locals call it), remembering the company’s 2014 crash that killed one pilot and badly injured another.

Billionaire blastoff: Branson, Bezos preparing to blast off for bragging rights