Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic tourism spaceship has made its first successful trip to the edge of space and back.
The passenger rocket ship travelled more than 50 miles above the Mojave Desert in California yesterday, taking Virgin Galactic a step closer to offering commercial space flights.
Branson said he hopes to start taking members of the public into space on the six-passenger rocket during the second half of next year.
During yesterday’s test flight, SpaceShipTwo was launched from a carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo before its own rocket motors kicked in, taking it up to an altitude of 51 miles.
The company said the spaceship reached Mach 2.9, nearly three times the speed of sound, during yesterday’s test flight.
Branson said there will be more test flights and if all goes well he will take a ride before taking paying passengers.
"I believe that sometime in the second half of next year that we will start being able to put regular people up into space," he said, describing Thursday as one of the best days of his life.
Virgin Galactic’s development of its spaceship has taken far longer than expected and endured a setback when the first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.
"People have literally put their lives on the line to get us here," Branson said. "This day is as much for them as it is for all of us."
More than 600 people have committed up to $250,000 for flights that include several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth.
