WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Virgin Galactic on Thursday blasted three tourists to the edge of space aboard its air-launched VSS Unity spaceplane, a live stream showed, the Richard Branson-founded company’s second commercial mission as it starts routine flights.
The rocket-powered VSS Unity craft dropped from the carrier plane over New Mexico around 9:20 a.m. local time and blasted its four passengers, a company instructor and three tourists, to an altitude of roughly 55 miles (88.51 km).
(This story has been corrected to rectify the spelling of Branson in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Mark Porter and Richard Chang)