The world's first private spaceship: By the numbers

Virgin Galactic unveils its new SpaceShipTwo spacecraft in 2009. The ship has just completed its first flight, and is undergoing testing before it&#039;s allowed to take tourists into space.

(Image credit: Getty)

last updated 8 January 2015

The world's first private, manned spaceship — Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo — completed its first test flight on Sunday, a crucial step toward making commercial space tourism a reality. The craft, also known as the VSS Enterprise, has more tests to pass before it can carry its first paying passengers into suborbital flight. In this one, a mother ship carried SpaceShipTwo aloft and released it over the Mojave Desert, after which SpaceShipTwo glided down without firing the rocket that will propel it into space. (Watch Richard Branson discuss his innovation.) Here's a look at the numbers behind this feat of aerospace engineering:

45,000 feet