Hyperdrive
Virgin Galactic Is Set to Fly First Private Tourists to Space
- Founder Richard Branson aims to build ‘spaceline for Earth’
- Company doesn’t expect profit from commercial flight for years
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity in New Mexico on July 11, 2021.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
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Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. carried its first private tourists to the edge of space, a long-awaited milestone in founder Richard Branson’s quest to build a “spaceline for Earth.”
The VSS Unity craft reached space shortly before 9:30 a.m. local time Thursday, Virgin Galactic said on a livestream of the event, roughly an hour after it took off from a New Mexico spaceport. The tourist mission, which offered passengers several minutes of weightlessness before descending back to solid ground, was the company’s second commercial flight following a recent research operation.