Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space tourism flight reached space on Thursday, the company founded by billionaire Richard Branson announced, marking a major milestone for the company, AFP reported.

The company, founded in 2004, has already reached space five times, but so far only with company members on board.

The VSS Unity spacecraft was carrying four passengers: two high-ranking Italian Air Force officers, an engineer from Italy’s National Research Council (CNR) and a Virgin Galactic attendant. There were also two pilots at the controls.

The spacecraft has cleared an altitude of 80 kilometers, the limit that the US military says marks the beginning of space, a commentator announced on the company’s live broadcast. “Welcome to space, astronauts,” enthused Sirisha Bandla, a Virgin Galactic employee who made the trip herself.

Finding themselves in weightlessness, the Italian flag was unfurled in the cabin.

The mission, called Galactic 01, launched from Spaceport America in the desert state of New Mexico.

For several minutes in weightlessness, passengers were able to break away from their seats and swim in the cabin.

Branson himself made this short journey into space in July 2021, almost two years ago.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) then temporarily grounded the spacecraft to investigate the trajectory deviation during this highly publicized flight.

Virgin Galactic then announced a hiatus in work aimed at improving its ship, which took much longer than expected.

In May, the company finally made its final test flight before commercial operations began.

Monthly flights / How much are tickets?

This has been expected for years. About 800 customers, including several celebrities, have already bought their tickets – the original price was between $200,000 and $250,000 per passenger, which was later raised to $450,000.

Virgin Galactic’s space program has been delayed for years, not least by an accident in 2014 that killed the pilot.

Thursday’s flight was presented as having a scientific mission, with several experiments carried out on board (looking at the behavior of liquids in weightlessness, the reaction of the passengers’ bodies, etc.).

After the second mission (Galactic 02) in August, Virgin Galactic promises space flights every month.

The company competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space.

But after an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, his rocket was grounded. In March, Blue Origin promised it would resume spaceflight “soon.” (photo: Steve Mann | Dreamstime.com)