Virgin Galactic successfully passed its test flight

Two years after the tragic crash of the original SpaceShipTwo aircraft, Virgin Galactic has completed its space flight test with success.

Virgin Group officials have announced what is considered to be a huge step for space travel: the successful landing of the VSS Unity, as both SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier safely landed on the ground yesterday in Mojave, California.

The historic moment was assisted by Sir Richard Branson and George Whiteside, the founder of the branch-company and its CEO.

After the fatal crash of the SpaceShipTwo on October 31, 2014 in California, when one pilot was killed and the other was severely injured, the investigation report found the cause of the accident to be the fact that "no safeguards" were available inside the craft in order to prevent human piloting error. Due to one error leading to a catastrophe, in which the SpaceShipTwo vehicle was completely destroyed, the group’s board developed a second ship, that this time successfully performed its mission.

Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of the British Virgin Group owned by Branson, builds commercial crafts for suborbital touristic spaceflights and science missions, as well as spacecrafts designed to launch artificial satellites on orbit. In the future, the group will also focus on introducing rocket-powered space trips for hybrid monitor testing.

Currently, the price for one space journey reaches £197,000 ($250,000) per tourist.