Billionaire Richard Branson launched a Virgin Galactic vessel destined for the edge of space from a facility in New Mexico on Sunday, hoping to kickstart the budding space tourism sector. At around 8:40 a.m. Mountain Time (1440 GMT), a massive carrier plane took off horizontally from Space Port, New Mexico, and will ascend for about an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 kilometres). The mothership will subsequently drop a VSS Unity rocket-powered spaceplane, which will start its engine and ascend at Mach 3 above the 50-mile (80-kilometer) mark, carrying two pilots and four passengers. Passengers can unbuckle and … Continue reading Richard Branson takes off for space