Richard Branson says he will take an LGBTQ Pride flag with him on his journey to the edge of space

• Richard Branson is set to travel to the edge of space on Sunday.
• The Virgin Galactic founder will bring an LGBTQ Pride flag with him, he told The Mail on Sunday.
• He's bringing the flag with him to commemorate the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, he said.

Sir Richard Branson is scheduled to embark on a historic journey to the edge of space on Sunday, and the Virgin Galactic founder said he intends to bring an LGBTQ Pride flag with him.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday hours before his scheduled lift-off, Branson said he's bringing the flag with him to commemorate the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

"Somebody who lost a loved one at the Orlando massacre asked if I would do that," he told the newspaper. "We also have many, many friends who are gay and I know people who lost friends there."

Read more: Meet the 32-year-old Palantir employee and TikTok star who will soon become one of the youngest mothers to ever travel to space

The 70-year-old added that he'll also bring family photos with him. His late mother, Eve, was set to travel with him on the Virgin Galactic spaceflight but died of COVID-19 in January, the newspaper said.

Branson will not be bringing a camera or a notebook, he added. "The last bit of advice I have been given from other astronauts is do not take a camera, do not take notebooks, just look out of the window and look back at this incredible world we live in and take it all in," he told The Mail on Sunday.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is set to fly its first full crew, including Branson, to an altitude of 55 miles at 9 a.m ET on Sunday.

Elon Musk, the CEO of CEO of Tesla and his own space company, SpaceX, has said that he plans to watch the New Mexico launch, Insider's Victoria Cavaliere reported.