"We have reached space!" wrote Virgin Galactic, which did not provide live video coverage of the test, on Twitter in capital letters.

This flight, which is the fifth of the company to cross the border of space, was presented as the last test before the start of commercial operations.

Now announced for the end of June, they have been expected for years, and about 800 customers have already bought their tickets.

Virgin Galactic's space program has suffered years of delay, including a 2014 accident that killed a pilot.

Then, after the spaceflight that carried the British Richard Branson himself in July 2021, the company had announced a pause, dedicated to the improvement of its craft. This lasted much longer than originally planned.

On Thursday, the mission named Unity 25 took place from the Spaceport America base in the New Mexico desert.

The crew consisted of Virgin Galactic employees.

A huge carrier aircraft, named VMS EVE, took off from a conventional runway, with two pilots at the controls. Then it dropped the spacecraft, called VSS Unity, which looks like a large private jet. On board: four passengers, and again two pilots.

It then turned on its engine until it exceeded 80 kilometers altitude (the definition of space according to the US army).

The ship then descended while gliding, before landing on the runway, like a conventional aircraft.

The proposed trip offers only ten minutes in space, but passengers can detach and float in weightlessness.

The first commercial flight, named Galactic 01, is to be with the Italian Air Force.

Richard Branson, July 11, 2021 at Spaceport America, near Truth and Consequences, New Mexico © Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/Archives

Between 2005 and 2014, Virgin Galactic sold some 600 tickets to space, priced between $200,000 and $250,000. Then 200 more have been sold in recent years, for $ 450,000 per unit.

Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights and has already sent 32 people into space.

But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, his rocket has been grounded. Blue Origin promised in March to resume its spaceflight "soon".

© 2023 AFP