Virgin Galactic brings first paying customers into space – Wel.nl

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES (AP) – Aerospace company Virgin Galactic took paying customers on a spaceflight for the first time on Thursday. On board were three Italians who searched and took the Italian flag to the highest point.

The rocket, hanging under a plane, took off from Spaceport America airport in the US state of New Mexico. The missile disconnected from the plane at an altitude of almost 14 kilometers, then fired further into the air. The occupants remained weightless for several minutes and then took out their national flags. The plane then returned to Earth.

Virgin Galactic, a project of British businessman Richard Branson, had been in the test flight phase for about twenty years. The company competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. They all want to sell sightseeing flights to space.

Virgin Galactic said ahead of Thursday’s launch that a successful flight would pave the way for another flight in August and monthly flights thereafter. About eight hundred people have already booked a flight with the company. They would have paid between 250,000 and 450,000 dollars (approximately between 230,000 and 415,000 euros) per seat.