A major milestone was reached for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic service during the weekend, as the maverick entrepreneur inched closer to realising his dream to launch the world’s first commercial space-liner.
As Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo landed after its first solo glide flight, told reporters that he expects the first test flight into space will happen within the next 12 months.
“There are a number of quite big deals on the way to getting commercial space travel to become a reality and this was a very big step. We now know that the space ship glides. We know that it can be dropped safely from the mother ship and that it can land safely.”
The SpaceShipTwo is intended for tourists taking suborbital trips and Branson hopes to bring his family on board the first flight into space, expecting this will be possible within 18 months to two years.
The latest milestone was recorded for the premiere of National Geographic Channel’s (NGC) highly anticipated four-part series, Virgin Galactic.
