Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has achieved a historic milestone by launching its first paying customers to the edge of space.

The mission, dubbed Galactic 01, took off from the company’s spaceport in New Mexico on June 29, 2023. It carried six passengers and crew on board the VSS Unity, a rocket-powered space plane that detached from a carrier aircraft at an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) and soared to more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

The passengers included two Italian Air Force personnel, a physician, an engineer, and a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor. They were selected by the Italian government and the National Research Council of Italy to conduct microgravity research during the flight. They also got to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and enjoy the stunning views of our planet and the stars.

The flight lasted for about 75 minutes and ended with a smooth landing on the same runway where it started. It was the first of many planned commercial flights that Virgin Galactic hopes to offer to the public in 2023. The company has already sold more than 800 tickets for future flights, each costing $450,000.

Branson, who flew to space himself on a previous test flight in July 2021, congratulated the crew and passengers on their successful mission. He said that Virgin Galactic was “opening up space for everyone” and that he was “proud to be part of this new era of exploration and discovery”.

Virgin Galactic’s chief competitor, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, has also launched several suborbital flight

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