Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, flew higher than it ever has before on Thursday, surpassing what the US Air Force considers the boundary of space, and marking the first manned flight to space from US soil since 2011.
The brief, suborbital flight -- with two pilots on board -- marked a key milestone for the company headed by British tycoon Richard Branson, who is striving to send tourists to space at a cost of USD 250,000 per seat.
No spacecraft with people on board has taken off from US soil since the American space shuttle program ended, as scheduled, seven years ago. Since then, the world's space agencies have relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
In the meantime, a burgeoning commercial space industry is rushing to close the gap, as companies hurry to complete spacecraft that can carry astronauts and tourists into microgravity.
"Today, for the first time in history, a crewed spaceship, built to carry private passengers, reached space," Branson said in a statement afterward. "This is a momentous day and I could not be more proud of our teams who together have opened a new chapter of space exploration."
"Reusable vehicles built and operated by private companies are about to transform our business and personal lives in ways which are as yet hard to imagine."
"Congrats to @VirginGalactic on SpaceShipTwo successfully flying to suborbital space with our four @NASA_Technology payloads onboard," NASA said on Twitter. "With a good rocket motor burn, the mission went beyond the 50-mile altitude target."
The first crew tests of SpaceX and Boeing's astronaut capsules are expected next year. Virgin's first flight date had been pushed back multiple times, following a test flight accident that killed a co-pilot in 2014. Branson told CNN in November he hoped to send people to space "before Christmas."
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