Four passengers traveled aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft: two senior Italian Air Force commanders, an engineer from the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and a Virgin Galactic employee who will accompany them. Two pilots were at the controls.
The spacecraft has exceeded 80 kilometers in altitude, the limit that the US military says marks the beginning of space, a commentator announced on a live video from the company.
“Welcome to space, astronauts,” said a delighted Sirisha Bandla, a Virgin Galactic employee who has made the trip in the past.
Once in weightlessness, an Italian flag was unfurled in the cockpit.
The mission, named Galactic 01, took off from the Spaceport America base in the desert state of New Mexico.
A huge plane took off at 08:30 local time from a conventional runway.
About an hour later, at an altitude of about 15 km, it released the craft, which resembles a large private jet.
It started its engine and accelerated vertically. For a few minutes, in zero gravity, passengers were able to untether themselves from their seats and float in the cabin.
The aircraft then returned gliding to land on the same runway.
Branson himself made this space trip in July 2021. Right after, the US Aviation Agency (FAA) immobilized the ship to investigate a trajectory deviation during this flight.
Virgin Galactic then announced that it was halting operations to upgrade the ship, but the pause lasted longer than expected.
In May, the company carried out its last test flight.