VIRGIN Galactic's experimental SpaceshipTwo has made its maiden flight in the California desert.
The spacecraft, brainchild of British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, took off nestled under the wing of its mothership White Knight Two (WK2).
"Virgin Galactic announced that its commercial manned spaceship, VSS Enterprise, successfully completed its first 'captive carry' test flight, taking off at 7.05am from Mojave Air and Spaceport, California,'' the company said.
The design for Virgin Galactic - delivered by Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aircraft maker in Mojave - was unveiled on December 7 and dubbed Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Enterprise.
In the future, WK2 will carry SpaceshipTwo to an altitude of about 50,000ft (16km) before dropping the smaller spaceship and allowing it to fire up its rocket motor to launch into space.
The test flight, which lasted just a few minutes, was the first in which both aircrafts went aloft without separating.
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