SIR Richard Branson and a crew of three others grazed the edge of space on Sunday in a rocket built by the British billionaire’s company, Virgin Galactic.
The flight ushers in a new chapter in the world of aeronautics, with Virgin Galactic among a handful of ambitious and well-funded ventures racing to commercialize travel to space.
Lifting off from Spaceport America in Las Cruces, N.M., — a commercial space flight center about 180 miles south of Albuquerque —Branson was among a crew of four “mission specialists” who reached speeds three times the speed of sound.
The spacecraft, which was attached to a larger plane, taxied across a runway at Spaceport America before lifting off at about 8:40 a.m. local time.
As the mothership — manned by two pilots — approached more than 46,000 feet above the earth’s surface, Virgin Galactic live streamed a video of vignettes about the vessel, interviews
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