Richard Branson takes off for space on Virgin Galactic flight

Virgin Galactic launches a team of six, including billionaire founder Richard Branson, on voyage to the edge of space.

Billionaire Richard Branson took off from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space, a voyage he hopes will lift the nascent space tourism industry off the ground. A massive carrier plane made a horizontal take-off from Space Port, New Mexico in the United States on Sunday at around 8:40am Mountain Time (14:40 GMT) and will ascend for around an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 kilometres) . The mothership will then drop a rocket-powered spaceplane called VSS Unity, which will ignite its engine and ascend at Mach 3 beyond the 50 miles (80 kilometres) carrying two pilots and four passengers, including Branson.