Virgin Galactic launches high-stakes flight carrying passengers to the edge of space | CNN Business

Virgin Galactic — the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — has returned its supersonic plane to the edge of space for the first time since 2021, when Branson made his own journey toward the cosmos. The company’s space plane, VSS Unity, carried two pilots and a crew of four Virgin Galactic employees on the Thursday test flight, which took off from a runway in New Mexico around 11:15 a.m. ET, according to Virgin Galactic’s Twitter account.

Company officials hope this will be the final test run before Virgin Galactic can open up rides to paying customers in late June —after years of promises, missed deadlines, and Branson selling off a huge chunk of his original stake in the company. However, if the test flight encountered major issues on Thursday, the problems could throw Virgin Galactic’s future into question or lead to more lengthy delays. The company has been here before.

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