Virgin Galactic rockets first tourist passengers into space

Virgin Galactic launched its first tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday, the culmination of a nearly two-decade commercial pursuit, the company said.

The three passengers -- Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff, and her teenage daughter Anastatia Mayers - floated gravity-free through the Virgin spacecraft about 45 minutes after taking off.

"They are officially astronauts. Welcome to space," said Virgin Galactic announcer Sirisha Bandla as the spacecraft pushed above 80 kilometers (50 miles) in altitude, the level marking the edge of space where the pull of gravity is minimal.

Live video showed the three admiring views of Earth and space through the windows.

After a few minutes in space, the craft began descending and safely landed in the U.S. state of New Mexico, on the same runway from which it took off.

The flight was "without a doubt the most exciting day of my life," said Goodwin, 80, an adventurer who competed in the 1972 Olympic Games as a canoeist for Britain.

"The pure acceleration, Mach-3 in eight-and-a-half seconds was completely surreal," he said.

"It was incredible and I'm still starstruck," said Mayers, who at 18 became the youngest person ever to go into space, according to the company.

Dream of space tourism

Thursday's long-awaited flight was the culmination of a nearly two-decade-old promise by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic's founder, to bring tourists into space, giving them the chance to experience weightlessness and see Earth from afar.

The spaceflights involve a giant, twin-fuselage carrier aircraft that takes off from a runway, gains altitude, then drops a rocket-powered spaceplane that soars higher.

This mission...