Billionaire Richard Branson, 5 crew return to Earth after historic space flight

New Delhi: Virgin Galactic spaceship Unity carrying a crew of four, including British billionaire Richard Branson, dabbled into space and returned to Earth safely, a live stream of the event showed on Sunday.

After separating from the mothership, Unity went up about 62 miles, briefly exposing the crew to zero gravity, Sputnik reported.

This marked Unity’s first test of suborbital flight, helping Virgin Galactic to demonstrate that space tourism is safe.

The #Unity22 crew floating in zero gravity. Watch the flight at https://t.co/5UalYT7Hjb. @richardbranson pic.twitter.com/4DhVQHF97O

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 11, 2021

Earlier, the spaceship took off from a spaceport in New Mexico, with UK billionaire Branson on board. The ship carried a crew of four including Virgin Galactic’s owner, Branson and Indian-American Sirisha Bandla.

The flight conducted more than 20 test flights, three of which have reached the edge of space, CNN reported. This was the first fully-crewed suborbital test of Unity.

Take-off! The #Unity22 crew including @RichardBranson leave Spaceport America, New Mexico for #VirginGalactic’s first fully-crewed spaceflight. pic.twitter.com/RxGYp90nu8

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 11, 2021