Virgin Galactic has successfully launched its first passengers into space, including billionaire founder Richard Branson. The launch was at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
"Just imagine a world where people of all ages, all backgrounds, from anywhere, of any gender, of any ethnicity, have equal access to space," Branson said. "Welcome to the dawn of a new Space Age!"
Branson and five crew members from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company reached an altitude of 53.5 miles - enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and witness the curvature of the Earth - before gliding back home to a runway landing.
The company's spaceship VSS Unity soared over the skies of New Mexico Sunday, with two pilots guiding the vessel carrying the billionaire founder and three Virgin Galactic employees.
VSS Unity, after being launched above 40,000 feet by a carrier aircraft named VMS Eve, ignited its rocket engine and soared to more than three times the speed of sound in an ascent to the edge of space.
Unity was piloted by Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci. In the spacecraft's cabin, Branson is joined by head astronaut trainer Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, and VP of government affairs Sirisha Bandla. Mackay and Masucci, as well as Moses and pilots C.J. Sturckow and Mark Stucky, had already flown into space.
Pilots who have flown more than 80 kilometers (or roughly 262,000 feet) are officially considered astronauts in the U.S.
Along with the two pilots, the VSS Unity can accommodate up to six people. The company has around 600 bookings for future flights, with costs ranging from $200,000 to $250,000 per ticket.
