Virgin Galactic is set to take its first paying customers to the edge of space this afternoon in the first of what it hopes will be regular trips for those willing to pay almost $500,000 for the ride.
Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism company is due to launch its VSS Unity rocket-powered space plane at 4pm from a spaceport in the New Mexico desert. The plane will be attached to a large twin-fuselage jet for take-off as it takes three customers to an altitude of 54 miles above the Earth’s surface.
During the 90-minute, 2,500mph suborbital flight, on which ticketholders will be joined by Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut trainer, those on board will see the sky turn from blue to black, experience five
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