behind me, the hit that moment. they are coasting to the edge of space here. and viewers on your television, you re actually able to see what rachel described a moment ago where you see the rocket burn actually happening. kristin fisher, what does this moment feel like to you on the ground as well? reporter: unbelievably exciting. brian, we can actually see spaceship 2 rocketing up into space right now. we can see the moment when spaceship 2 released from the mother ship. you could see the smoke, the contrails from the ground as it rocketed up. everyone on the ground here cheering, and now this spaceship is in the very capable hands of the two pilots on board this flight, dave mckay, michael masuki. this is what they trained their entire lives for. these are two very highly trained test pilots. they ve been with virgin galactic for quite some time, and now they are responsible for the company s founder, richard branson, achieving his life long
edge of space. and the way it works, spaceship 2 took off attached to a mother ship called eve at the right altitude. it detached. the pilots fired the rocket engine. it flew nearly vertical up to the edge of space. the astronauts got a few minutes of weightlessness before the plane glided back down, landing back on the same runway it took off from at space port america. so now the idea is, after two more test flights, virgin galactic will finally begin making good on its promise to send paying customers up on these suborbital space flights. if that s not enough, in just a few days, nine days, to be exact, another billionaire, jeff bezos is going to attempt to fly into space on his own spaceship. blue origin s new shepherd spacecraft. so there s been so much talk about this rivalry between these billionaire space barrons but today, jeff bezos wishing richard branson a safe and
about these billionaires and rich people going into space. that s how big things happen and change is made. if you look back to the beginning of flight, airplanes traveling in the sky, it was rich people that started doing that first. then it became more readily available to the masses. i understand the frustration, but this is the beginning of, as you said, the democratizization of space. boy, that was a textbook test flight. i m standing literally in the desert. the runway right over my shoulder. the reason you do it in the desert ask in case something happens. this is exactly the same kind of setup we ll see on july 20th when jeff bezos attempts to launch on his new shepherd spacecraft. the big difference here, this is the fourth crewed flight of spaceship 2. jeff bezos, that s going to be the very first time that a person has actually been on
they were doing all those trainings to get their bodies used to what it feels like with those g-forces. they were also seeing what it feels like to get that weightlessness, traveling with just a few seconds of weightlessness. now i believe what i am seeing is a little bit ahead of what you guys are seeing, but we did get a glimpse into inside spaceship 2 and maybe you guys will see it in just a few more minutes. we know the speed is slowing down dramatically now. now down to this mach 1. rachel, what does it feel like? is it like a roller coaster where you have that momentary feeling of weightlessness but you re feeling it for several minutes? reporter: that s exactly right, brian. that moment you get to the very top of the roller coaster and just coming off the edge when
team are just brilliant. this is sharicia. i think that s part of it, the team, and beth moses, our chief instructor, has prepared us so well. not only training and operations and emergency procedures. it s preparing for the experience. when i was sitting in the space ship, i knew it was real. i knew what to expect and i could focus on the views and experience. it was just incredible. and she was working at a scientist doing experiments as well. richard, you have long spoken about the overview, in fact, anyone who has gone to space refers to the overview, how it changed them and they become a steward of earth. did you experience that? it sort of capped it off for me. i will now spend, and i promise, i will now spend the next i m an optimist, the next 30 years of my life doing everything i can to protect the species on this beautiful earth. to work on climate change