When the ship, tested by Virgin Galactic for commercial space travel in 2014, crashed: the pilot died and many saw that the dream of "opening up space for the crowd" fell.
But this Thursday, four years after an accident with a fatal outcome, the company He continued his hope.
Virgin Galactic, from Richard Branson's tycoon, managed to launch the first space flight into space and return it to Earth without incident.
SpaceShipTwo Space Ships, which flew from California with pilots, reached a height of 82.7 km above the altitude, with which NASA awards the astronaut status (80 km).
SpaceShipTwo reached this height after take-off, composed in the second plane from which it resigned to continue with the speed 2.9 times faster like sound
"So far, it's been 14 years. We had tears, the tears of truth and moments of joy. Today's tears were tears of joy, "said Richard Branson to reporters after the success of the operation.
His statements show the meaning of what was achieved at Virgin Galactic; a a milestone for this company, but also for those who want to open space tourism.
"Career" 14 years
Branson is in the race with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who first sent the universe first tourists.
In 2004, he set up a commercial space trip, shortly after Musk opened SpaceX (2002) and Bezos created Blue Origin (2000).
The first time Virgin promised that the descendants would dive into Saturday's space, he was in 2008 when he assured that this would happen in "18 months".
Since then, the company has made similar promises, but it was accumulated delays, disappointed experiments and even tragedy.
In 2014, the test ship collapsed and one of the two people who traveled there died Michael Alsbury.
Due to the incident, the company reflected on its position and even called into question its goal, but in the end Branson insisted on continuing.
Two years later, Virgin introduced the new Unity ship and returned to re-test.
That's why traveling SpaceShipTwo is now an achievement for private companies.
But in addition, it is a milestone for future travel to space; the end of the monopoly of state space agencies.
"Today we have demonstrated that Virgin Galactic can open up space for the whole world," Branson said.
The big question is now: when can we go?
Closer
An increasing number of entrepreneurs join the game to create travel activities into space.
Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin are trying to get it as soon as possible.
In the case of Virgin, some of these trips could take place the following year, according to the agency. Reuters.
Unlike other competing companies, Branson has already started selling tickets for their future travel and more than 600 people they signed up
However, experience is not cheap at all.
The room is for now: up to 250,000 US dollars 90 minutes.
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Best celestial photos and space 2018
The Curiosity Rover Self-portrait of the Science Science Laboratory mission at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) shows a robot on a perforated sampling site called "Duluth" on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in Mars on June 20.
Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-10 transporting members of the International Space Station 57/58 – Russian space astronaut Aleksey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague – take off from the launch platform at the Cosmodrome baikonur in Cosmodrome baikonur in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, on October 11th. The mission was suspended shortly after commissioning due to irregularities in spacecraft.
This large-scale image is a five-centimeter hole, created by a new drilling technique for NASA's Curiosity rover. Interestingly, this is a hole in "Duluth" on May 20th. This was the first sample of rocks, recorded with drill since October 2016.
The fortification of the sun is seen as a detention center in Salgótarján, Hungary, on 22 August.
In this region of the Lyotsky Crater on Mars, Marshes, on 24 January, the classical classic dune barchane displays.
This picture captures a gorgeous view of the storm with light clouds in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter. Over the years, on February 7, Juno took this enhanced color picture.
This image of the Marine Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Crater Hall of the Red Planet, a large crater with a number of interesting elements, such as active ravens, active repetitive slopes and extensive freezing flows. There are also various stone units (colorings).
On April 30, the crew of the International Space Station took this picture of a full moon, while the station was circulating on the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
A long exposure image shows the stars that revolve around the North Star, also known as Polaris, between the "night star star" at the Col de la Givrine Pass in Switzerland on August 5th.
Astronavt Ricky Arnold on June 14th, for the sixth space this year, which lasted 6 hours and 49 minutes. Arnold, together with station commander Drew Feustel, installed new high-resolution cameras that will provide better views during the final phase of moving and connecting SpaceX Crew Dragon and commercial ship Boeing Starliner.
This image of the remnants of Cassiopeia A supernova, shot by X-ray Observatory Chandra NASA, reveals the location of silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green), and iron (purple) in the residue. The Micro-X mission, launched on July 22, will show a wider range of elements so that astronomers can better understand the explosion. Cassiopeia A is about 11,000 light-years from Earth.
New moon across the sky in Hanover, Germany, November 6.
On this picture from the space ship Juno on May 23, there are belts of turbulent clouds and turbulent vortices in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter.
The northern lights, also known as the northern lights, illuminate the sky above the Godafoss waterfall in Iceland on 14 October.
People watch the sunset between Manhattanhen, an event in which the sun rises or settles along the east-west streets of Manhattan in New York, USA. USA, July 12.
This view of the sun, observed by the Observatory of Solar Dynamics on September 21, uses two images selected and taken almost at the same time, but in different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light. A red-toned image that captures material, not far from the surface of the Sun, is good for revealing details on the edge of the Sun. The brown color image shows two large coronal openings (darker areas), as well as some lines of the weak magnetic field, followed by solar activity (brighter areas), none of which is visible in red. This activity is somewhat higher on the solar crown.
People see how the GSAT-29 communication satellite of the Indian Space Research Organization, which is on board the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk III-D2) vehicle in Sriharikota, India, was communicated on 14 November.
Meteors drag the stars to the night sky during the Perseid meteor shower in Premnitz, Germany, on August 11th.
The only active area visible in the sun is visible on a thin screen with its complicated magnetic fields rotating and rotating on it (24-26 April) when looking at the wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light.
On June 20, an international space station in space installed the NanoRacks-Remove Debris satellite outside the Japanese laboratory module Kibo. This technology demonstration has been designed to explore the use of a 3D camera to determine the location and speed of the remnants of weapons or "space scrap".
This image captures the shapes of swirling clouds around the southern pole of Jupiter, which look towards the equatorial region. NASA's space spacecraft had an improved color image during its eleventh year, which is near the big gas fleet on February 7th.
This image from the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a sparkling, ancient deep cluster called the NGC 3201, which brings together hundreds of thousands of stars connected by gravity.
Star Trek can be seen across the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster, England, on February 6th.
This image of the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was acquired on May 13th in the winter of the southern half of Mars, shows a layer of carbon dioxide that covers the region, and when the sun returns to the spring, silt sprinkled from the landscape began to appear. .
A glimpse of Saturn and his wonderful system of rings on June 27, when the planet was directly in the sun during the night sky.
Perseid meteorite over Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, USA USA, August 13th.
The enhanced color image was created on May 23, when Juno made its 13th year near Jupiter.
Planet Mars and the Milky Way are visible on a clear night sky in Salgótarján, Hungary, on August 3.
Sunrise, observed by NASA at the Solar Dynamics Observatory on May 15th.
Image captured by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope 3 broadband camera, the picture depicts the Coma Berenices constellation in which there is a Coma cluster consisting of more than 1,000 gravity-related galaxies. Many of these galaxies are elliptical, as is the brightest of the two galaxies that dominate this image: NGC 4860 (C).
This series of images depicts simulated glimpses of the dark skies of Mars, which comprise the Sun from the perspective of the Opportunity rover, with the right hand simulating its current view in the June stormy storm. The left begins with a glittering, bright afternoon sky, with the sun appearing larger due to light. The right shows that the sun is so hidden with dust that it looks like a dick.
View of the cactus and the Milky Way in the sky above the Tataco desert in Huila, Colombia, October 11.
This image captured by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 shows a spiral galaxy called the NGC 6744. At first glance, it looks like a Milky Way, but this galaxy is larger.
In this respect, summarized by the Juno spacecraft, vortex clouds are observed in the northern temperate zone north of Jupiter. The enhanced color image was performed on February 7th.
One of the most active areas of change on Mars are the steep edges of the stratified deposits of North Polar. This image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began in July, shows a lot of new ice blocks.
The NGC 1032 looks like a wizard's staff sharing a silent space theme in space from the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It is about 100 million light-years away, in the constellation Cetus (sea monsters). Some other galaxies can also be seen in the background, scattered around the narrow band of NGC 1032.
NASA's solar probe, which began on August 12th, returned the first light data monthly to a monthly mission. The probe measures the electric and magnetic fields of the sun, the particles of the sun and the wind of the sun. There are environmental images around the spacecraft.
