British billionaire Richard Branson was the first to fly into space with his own space company on Sunday.

At around 10:40 am local time, the “VSS Unity” spacecraft lifted off from “Spaceport America” in the desert of the US state of New Mexico with the aid of a carrier aircraft.

The glider then released around 45 minutes later to continue flying into space.

Branson and the three other passengers experienced weightlessness there for a few moments before the spacecraft flew back and landed safely in New Mexico after almost exactly an hour.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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With the appointment on Sunday, Branson and his company Virgin Galactic came before Jeff Bezos.

The founder of the online retailer Amazon.com, which also owns the space specialist Blue Origin, is planning a trip into space for July 20th.

Branson and Bezos have described their flights as childhood dreams.

Bezos' company taunts Branson

But they also hope that this will give space tourism a decisive boost, and both want to promote paying customers in the future.

Virgin Galactic has sold tickets for up to $ 250,000.

Even before Branson took off, Bezos' company tried to downplay its mission - underscoring the rivalry between the multibillionaires.

Blue Origin pointed out on Twitter that, unlike Virgin's trips, their own flights go beyond the Kármán Line, which is a hundred kilometers above sea level and is often described as the boundary between the earth's atmosphere and space.

Branson's flight will actually be a few kilometers below, but at least US aviation authorities also define this altitude as space.

On the trips of both companies, passengers should be able to feel weightlessness.

Blue Origin tweeted that it had deliberately set the flight altitude beyond the Kármán line so that the transported "astronauts" would not have to have an "asterisk" next to their names.

The tweet lists a number of other points as to why your own flight experience should be superior.

They offer “the largest windows in space”, while Virgin Galactic only offers “airplane-sized windows”.

In addition, passengers would be brought into space with a rocket, and not with an airplane, as Virgin does.

Nicola Pecile, a Virgin test pilot, responded to Blue Origin's comments.

"This peeing contest over the Kármán line is so childish it's starting to get really embarrassing to look at," he wrote in a tweet that he has since deleted.

To fly higher than thirty kilometers alone is so difficult that it deserves recognition.

Maybe to smooth things over again, Bezos himself struck more conciliatory tones on Saturday and wrote on his personal Instagram account that he wished Branson and his team a successful and safe flight.

Branson himself tried to downplay the competition.

He denied having chosen his flight date with the intention of driving Bezos into the parade.

It was simply an "unbelievable, wonderful coincidence" that they both want to go into space in the same month, he told the Washington Post.

A few weeks ago, however, in another interview he couldn't help but swipe when, when asked whether he wanted to forestall Bezos, he said: "Jeff who?"

Another space entrepreneur is staying out of these taunts: Elon Musk, who runs the space specialist SpaceX in addition to the electric car manufacturer Tesla, tweeted Branson “best wishes” and revealed that he would be there at the start. Branson replied thanking Musk for being "such a good friend," and later tweeted a photo of both of them. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin compete more closely with each other with their suborbital flights to the edge of space than with SpaceX. Musk's company also wants to transport space tourists, but is aiming for more distant destinations.