Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic completed its first flight in two years yesterday, paving the way for commercial operations to begin in June.
Virgin’s Unity craft reached the edge of space with four passengers and two pilots before heading back to land in the New Mexico desert.
Around 800 tickets have already been sold for commercial flights at a price of US$450,000 a time.
For their money, travellers will go to a height of around 80km above the earth’s surface.
Members of the Italian Air Force will be Virgin Galactic’s first paying customers and will conduct experiments on the flight.
The first “space tourists” will take off on the following flight and enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness in the 90-minute journey time.
Virgin Galactic flights are launched from underneath a carrier plane rather than using a vertical rocket take-off.
The programme has been dogged by a series of delays and technical issues though this was the fifth time it had reached space since the programme was launched in 2008.
“Touchdown, VSS Unity!” the company tweeted after the craft landed.
“Our crew and spaceship are back on Earth after landing smoothly at Spaceport America, New Mexico.”
The successful flight came just days after Branson's other space business, Virgin Orbit, shut down with most of its assets now sold off.