Space tourism company Virgin Galactic completed its first fully crewed test flight of its spacecraft on Sunday, making a giant leap toward commercial suborbital spaceflight.
The mission, dubbed "Unity 22," was the company's fourth crewed spaceflight, and the 22nd flight test for the company's spacecraft VSS Unity.
It was also the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, who was testing the private astronaut experience.
The crew took off from the company's homeport of Spaceport America in U.S. state of New Mexico Sunday morning. The spacecraft, VSS Unity, achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space at an altitude of 53.5 miles.