Virgin Galactic has now come one step closer to getting back into the space race after its new SpaceShipTwo craft, called VSS Unity, completed its first test flight yesterday.

‘Today marks an exciting milestone in our shared quest to open space to change the world for good,’ Virgin Galactic said. ‘For the first time, a spaceship built by our manufacturing arm, The Spaceship Company, and operated by us at Virgin Galactic has taken to the skies.’

The tests took place in the Mojave desert, California.

The test for the new spaceship, was a ‘captive carry,’ in which the spaceship stayed attached to its carrier WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, also called VMS Eve, for the entire flight. ‘In this configuration, WhiteKnightTwo serves as a veritable ‘”flying wind tunnel,”allowing the highest fidelity method of testing airflow around SpaceShipTwo while simultaneously testing how the spaceship performs when exposed to the frigid temperatures found at today’s maximum altitude of ~50,000 feet and above,’ the post said.

The test flight was led by four test pilots. Two were in SpaceShipTwo and two were on the carrier aircraft. VSS Unity was piloted by Mark Stucky and Dave Mackay, while VMS Eve was flown by Mike Masucci and Todd Ericson along with flight test engineer Wes Persall. ‘With this flight in the books, our team will now analyze a mountain of flight data, learning what worked well and what could be improved for our next flight test,’ the company said. ‘Only when that analysis is done, along with detailed vehicle inspections, some already-planned work, and potentially more captive carry flights, will we be ready to move into the next phase of test flight.’

Professor Stephen Hawking unveiled the spacecraft in February this year. ‘We are entering a new space age, and I hope this will help to create a new unity,’ he said, launching the craft via a video message of behalf of Virgin boss Richard Branson. ‘If I am able to go & if Richard will still take me, I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship,’ he said.

The six-passenger, two-pilot winged space plane has been designed to take passengers on five-minute voyages into suborbital space, and will reach altitudes of about 62 miles (100 km). It replaces the craft Virgin lost following 2014’s fatal crash, when Pilot Michael Alsbury was killed in the accident, which dashed Virgin Galactic’s plans to start commercial operations as early as this year.

With a hefty price tag of $250,000 (£175,000) a ticket, it is aimed at super rich thrill-seekers and celebrities, as well as researchers and commercial customers.

Virgin Galactic’s own manufacturing arm, The Spaceship Company, already was well into construction of the second SpaceShipTwo of the fleet when the accident occurred.