Today in the Mojave desert, Virgin Galactic had a successful test flight that reached 50 miles above the surface of the earth, meeting the Federal Aviation administration's definition of space. This places the company one step closer to the long-awaited goal Richard Branson promised: space tourism.

SpaceShipTwo, welcome to space.

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 13, 2018

Lovely shot of takeoff! WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo take to the skies pic.twitter.com/JFcSDVB9jR

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 13, 2018

Breaking: Virgin Galactic reached suborbital space for the first time in a test flight Thursday, bringing Richard Branson’s company closer to flying its customers beyond Earth’s atmosphere. https://t.co/1DZ4dYYOYZ

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 13, 2018

On the flightline @virgingalactic @TheSpaceshipCo pic.twitter.com/5PyOpnnxV2

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) December 13, 2018

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Federal safety officials say the builder of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is at fault for not anticipating the copilot error that caused the spaceship's disintegration during a test flight nine months ago.

Tickets to space? Pay for them with bitcoin. [The Guardian] Read the rest

[Video Link]

Man, if there's one thing Richard Branson knows better than anyone, it's how to put on an amazing launch event. Above, video from the Virgin Galactic kickoff for the world's first commercial spaceport, Spaceport America (alternate link), today in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Project Bandaloop did an aerial choreography performance from the side of the structure. Looked kind of like a really classy strip club in the sky. Branson himself joined the fun, and rappelled off the building during the ceremonies. The man knows how to have a good time.

Press release and photos from the event are here. From the sound of this Associated Press item, must have been a blast. (images: Mark Greenberg).

Previously on BB: "Virgin Galactic to unveil world's first commercial spaceport."

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Richard Branson blogs: "A historic day today in New Mexico as we will be opening the first commercial spaceport in the world - Spaceport America."

More at the Virgin Galactic website.

We'll have photos from the unveiling event on Boing Boing soon. Read the rest