SIR Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has made its first commercial flight to the edge of space.
Rocket plane Unity, with three Italian astronauts on board, was released by mothership Eve at an altitude of 50,000ft.
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Unity then climbed to 279,000ft (50 miles) before landing safely 15 minutes later.
During the flight above the New Mexico desert the astronauts conducted a series of biometric and physiological experiments.
Their flight was paid for by Italy’s research council and air force.
Sir Richard tweeted in a mixture of Italian and English: “Che volo fantastico [what a fantastic flight]!
“An historic moment — @virgingalactic’s first commercial spaceflight completed. Ben fatto [well done].”
Virgin Galactic will now begin sending up the 800 or so people who have bought £350,000 tickets to ride on Unity.
But they may have a long wait as it can only carry a handful of passengers and fly once a month.
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