Virgin Galactic launches first commercial spaceflight | USA TODAY

Three researchers from Italy boarded the space plane in the first commercial flight for billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company. https://bit.ly/46snc0g RELATED: NASA Mars mission: 3D-printed 'Mars Dune Alpha' unveiled https://youtu.be/L-xGmQAB3KY A crew of three specialists from Italy will board a rocket plane Thursday bound for the edges of space in the first commercial flight for billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism company. The two Italian Air Force officers and an aerospace engineer from the National Research Council of Italy are prepared to embark on 90-minute flight to conduct a series of suborbital scientific experiments, the company said in a media release. The crew will be joined by a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor and the spaceplane's pilots for a flight dubbed Galactic 101. » Subscribe to USA TODAY: http://bit.ly/1xa3XAh » Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY: https://tinyurl.com/34eetcxa » USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR. #VirginGalactic #RichardBranson #space