In brief: Richard Branson believes that Virgin Galactic will send its first astronauts into space within the next four months. He also suggested that Elon Musk's goal to get to Mars is not going to help the Earth as much as Virgin's plans.

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Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, which includes spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday to state that he expects the company to send its first astronauts into space “in about four months.” This comes after a more optimistic statement by Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight last week. He said that he hopes for Virgin Galactic “to be in space by the end of this year.”

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Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, the VSS Unity, must first successfully navigate a series of test flights before the craft can make its way into outer space. However, it is likely that suborbital commercial tourism and research flights will come before the company ventures outside of the atmosphere.