Virgin Galactic Moves One Step Closer to Commercial Space Flights

The release of VSS Unity from VMS Eve and ignition of rocket motor over Spaceport America, N.M., on May 22, 2021. Virgin Galactic via AP

Flying at Mach 3 and reaching more than 55 miles above the Earth Saturday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s private spaceship company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico.

This is a milestone in Branson’s near two-decades effort to create a commercial “spaceline” to take paying customers into outer space.