Sir Richard Branson is training to become an astronaut as he prepares for a space race against Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. The British billionaire, who is attempting to get his space tourism company Virgin Galactic off the ground, said that he will be catapulted into space within months. We are talking about months not years so its close. There are exciting times ahead, he told BBC radio 4's You and Yours, to be broadcast on Monday, 'I' m going for astronaut training, 'I' m going for fitness training, centrifuge and other training so that my body will hopefully cope well when I go to space.' Sir Richard, teach entrepreneur Elon Musk and Amazon founder Mr Bezos are leading the charge in commercial space travel as they race to get tourists into space. While Sir Richard believes Mr Musk is 'doing fantastically well' in getting cargo into space, the real tussle is between the Virgin boss and Mr Bezos.