In space milestone, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completes first manned space flight
- Branson’s SpaceShipTwo craft lifted off in the desert about 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico on Saturday
- About 50 minutes later, travelling at more than 2,300 miles an hour, it reached a height Nasa recognises as space and attained suborbital flight status
Flying at Mach 3 and reaching more than 55 miles above the Earth on Saturday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s private spaceship company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico.
This is a milestone in Branson’s near two-decades effort to create a commercial “spaceline” to take paying customers into outer space.
Touted as the first human space flight from the state, Branson’s SpaceShipTwo craft lifted off in the desert about 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico, at around 10.35am local time.
About 50 minutes later, travelling at more than 2,300 miles an hour, it reached a height Nasa recognises as space and attained suborbital flight status.
“Welcome to space” the company posted on Twitter.
Branson shared videos of the flight on social media and said on Twitter, “Delighted to be on the flight line to Virgin Galactic’s first human space flight from the majestic Spaceport America.”