Virgin Galactic has taken its first steps to making commercial space travel a reality, with Sunday’s first flight of SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Enterprise.

Enterprise was released from its mother ship, Eve, at an altitude of 13,7km.

“The sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year,” Branson said.

Lift off of the Enterprise has been planned since 2004, after the creation of SpaceShipOne, designed by aviation prodigy Burt Rutan.

SpaceShipTwo is the first aircraft to be constructed almost entirely of carbon composite, which Virgin says has allowed it to build a spacecraft with the same level of safety as traditional aeroplane travel.

The launch mechanism is also considered revolutionary, with the Enterprise being launched from the air, rather than from the ground.

The first flight of Enterprise was commissioned to ensure the craft could be cleanly released from its mother ship in mid air and for the pilots to free fly and land at Mojave Air and Spaceport in California.

Virgin says it already has 370 customers waiting to board the first commercial flights of the craft, which are expected to begin as early as next year.

“To see the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on a runway is a sight I always dreamed I would behold. Now, our challenge will be to complete our experimental program, obtain our FAA licence and safely bring the system into service at Spaceport America, New Mexico, says George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic. — Staff reporter, TechCentral