Richard Branson's life and work chronicled in new HBO series

A new HBO docuseries examines the life and work of Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire Virgin Group founder known for his love of high-stakes adventure and philanthropic endeavors.

"Branson" gives viewers an in-depth look at the 72-year-old mogul's latest venture into private space travel with his company, Virgin Galactic. Last year, the firm launched its first fully crewed flight with Branson and three other passengers, along with two pilots, on board.

"I was really fortunate to have been on that first flight. It was 17 years of hard work that got us to that day. And obviously, the final episode, I think it illustrates all the ups and downs and heartaches and joy at the end of finally getting to space," Branson told ABC News.

Branson's role on the flight was to evaluate the private astronaut experience to prepare for future customers.

"As far as the future, you know, next year, which is fast approaching, we'll start to put the 800 people who signed up to go into space, into space, and I believe they'll have the same incredible day that I had," Branson said.

Virgin Galactic has stated its mission is "democratizing space" and increasing accessibility. The company opened ticket sales for future flights to the general public in February, costing $450,000 for a 90-minute journey to the edge of space, according to a news release.

"The spaceship gracefully flips while astronauts enjoy several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and breath-taking views of Earth from the spaceship's 17 windows," the release stated.

"Branson" director Chris Smith, who previously served as executive producer of "Tiger King" and director of Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary, says he wanted to go beyond the headlines while documenting the lead up to the historic flight.

"There was a lot of news coverage around the time of the spaceflight that I think was very reductive, and it was, myself included, just from an ignorance of understanding the journey that the 17 years and what went into that with this team of incredible people that tried to make this happen," Smith said.

The docuseries also features archival footage from Virgin Galactic, which was founded by Branson in 2004.

Branson, along with fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, have garnered both criticism and praise for their respective commercial endeavors in space. Critics have faulted them for focusing resources on space travel instead of using more of their vast wealth to address problems on Earth.

"Space travel is just so important. I mean, if you go all the way back to the moon landing. What we learned from that, from the moon landing has transformed the Earth in a positive way. And I think what Jeff Bezos and myself, Elon [Musk] are doing, we brought the cost of space travel down to a fraction of where it was, the environmental costs down to a fraction of where it was. And you can also just give people the joy of being able to see this beautiful Earth themselves from space," Branson said.

The finale of the four-part documentary aired Thursday night on HBO.