US: British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday aboard Virgin Galactic vessel left from  Spaceport America, a huge base built in the Jornada del Muerto desert, around 20 miles southeast of the nearest town, Truth or Consequences.

He described the voyage as experience of a lifetime and one he hopes will usher in an era of lucrative space tourism. He conveyed congratulations to all our wonderful team at Virgin Galactic for 17 years of hard, hard work to get us this far, he said during a live feed as the VSS Unity spaceship glided back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do https://t.co/Wyzj0nOBgX #Unity22 @virgingalactic pic.twitter.com/03EJmKiH8V

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021

Virgin Galactic vessel reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometers) beyond the boundary of space, according to the United States allowing the passengers to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth’s curvature. The trip proceeded and touchdown occurred at around 9:40 am (GMT1540), about an hour after take-off.

The mission’s success means Branson has beaten fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos in the race to be the first tycoon to cross the final frontier in a ship built by a company he founded. Earlier, a massive carrier plane took off and ascended to 50K feet before dropping VSS Unity to complete the rest of the flight using its rocket powered engine. The space plane carried two pilots and four passengers, including Branson.

The ship then re-entered the atmosphere, lowered its flexible wings and glided back to the runway. Branson in his tweet wrote that it’s a beautiful day to go to space. He founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, but the dream almost came to an end in 2014 when an in flight accident caused the death of a pilot, considerably delaying the program.

Since then, VSS Unity has successfully reached space three times, in 2018, 2019 which included the first crew member who wasn’t a pilot and finally in May this year. Financed largely by the state of New Mexico, Virgin Galactic is the principal tenant.