Virgin Galactic completes first space tourism flight
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has officially taken flight as a commercial space tourism business.
It completed its first flight with paying space tourists, reaching an altitude of about 53 miles.
Passengers were two Italian air force colonels and an aerospace engineer from Italy.
The 90-minute suborbital trip on flagship Unity touched down safely.
It included a short time of weightlessness before re-entry and touchdown at Spaceport America.
Virgin Galactic tweeted: “Welcome back to Earth, #Galactic01! Our pilots, crew and spaceship have landed smoothly at @Spaceport_NM.”
It marks the inaugural space tourism service after several years of delays.
It was the sixth piloted flight but the first with paying space tourists.
Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets which cost up to $450,000 each.
The company hopes to offer up to 400 space flights a year.
It first completed a fully crewed test flight nearly two years ago with Sir Richard Branson aboard.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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