Virgin Galactic crew complete successful space flight with Richard Branson onboard: Here’s how they pulled it off
Billionaire Richard Branson and five Virgin Galactic Holdings employees pulled off a key test flight to space, bolstering the company’s plans to debut tourism trips next year.
The VSS Unity space plane glided back through sunny skies to land in New Mexico at about 9:38 a.m. local time, shortly after detaching from a carrier aircraft and rocketing to an altitude of about 282,000 feet, or more than 53 miles (86 kilometers) above the Earth. Branson and the crew are expected to discuss the trip in a news conference later Sunday.
The suborbital journey kicks off a landmark month for the future of space tourism, with Branson looking to demonstrate Virgin Galactic’s capabilities nine days before Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos plans to fly on a rocket made by Blue Origin, his space venture.
