A view from the edge of space is seen from the cockpit of Virgin Galactic's manned space tourism rocket plane SpaceShipTwo during a space test flight over Mojave, California, U.S. December 13, 2018. Virgin Galactic/Handout via REUTERS
MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) - A Virgin Galactic rocket plane reached space on Thursday and returned safely to the California desert, capping years of testing to become the first U.S. commercial human flight to breach Earth's atmosphere since America's shuttle programme ended in 2011.
The successful test flight presages a new era of civilian space travel that could kick off as soon as next year, with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic battling billionaire-backed ventures such as Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to be the first to offer suborbital flights to fare-paying tourists.
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