Virgin Galactic completes final test flight before launching paying customers to space

FILE – Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson answers students’ questions during a news conference at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, N.M., on July 11, 2021. Virgin Galactic completed what’s expected to be its final test flight Thursday, May 25, 2023, before taking paying customers on brief trips to space. The company is planning its first commercial flight, a science mission with the Italian Air Force, in late June. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M (AP) — Virgin Galactic has completed a final test flight before taking paying customers on brief trips to space. Six of the company’s employees landed Thursday morning at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico after a flight that included a few minutes of weightlessness. The flight came nearly two years after founder Richard Branson beat fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to space. Flights were grounded after that trip as federal aviation authorities investigated a mishap. The first commercial flight will be a science mission with the Italian Air Force. Next will come paying ticket holders who have been waiting years for their chance at weightlessness.


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