Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, flew higher than it ever has before on Thursday, surpassing what the US Air Force considers the boundary of space, and marking the first manned flight to space from US soil since 2011.
The brief, suborbital flight — with two pilots on board — was a key milestone for the company headed by British tycoon Richard Branson, who is striving to send tourists to space at a cost of $250,000 per seat.
No spacecraft with people on board has taken off from US soil since the American space shuttle program ended, as scheduled, seven years ago.
Since then, the world’s space agencies have relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
In the meantime, a burgeoning commercial space industry is rushing to close the gap, as companies hurry to complete spacecraft that can carry astronauts and tourists into…
Source: News Agency of Nigeria
