Branson and 5 crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of about 53 miles over the New Mexico desert, enough to experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth. From there, Branson said it’s amazing, “ It’s a dream experience of lifetime.” After landing he popped some bubbly and said “ Welcome to the dawn of the new space age.” The rocket ship’s portion of flight took around about 15 minutes, or about as long as Alan Shephard’s first US base flight in 1961. It was intended as a confident boosting plug for Virgin Galactic, which plans to start taking paying customers next year. I’m Julie Waller .
* curvature; curving or landing
* bubbly: a white sparkling wine either produced in Champagne or resembling that produced there