Scots astronaut makes history jetting into space on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scots astronaut made history by jetting into space on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space flight yesterday.Colin Bennett’s proud family in Scotland watched the 38-year-old successfully complete a 90-minute research flight - paving the way for billionaire boss Sir Richard Branson to sell tickets to paying tourists later this summer.SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity launched at 11 am from New Mexico (4pm UK time) - in a mission dubbed ‘Galactic 01’ - which was only publicly announced on Monday.Colin’s auntie, who lives on the Isle of Bute, said her nephew was born in Scotland, before moving to England when he was a child and said the family were “all on tenterhooks” as they prepared to watch the launch.Ann Harvie said: “Colin is Scottish.

He was born here. His dad is from Glasgow and his mum from the Scottish Highlands.”Joining Colin, an astronaut instructor, on yesterday’s flight were three other crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy - Col.

Walter Villadei, Pantaleone Carlucci and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, plus two Virgin Galactic staff.The spaceplane was launched in mid-air from a carrier plane at an altitude of just over nine miles with a rocket then firing the craft and its crew into sub-orbital space at least 50 miles above the Earth.Once the spaceplane reaches the edge of space, it will hover in place to let passengers experience zero gravity, and the views of both space and Earth from windows in the roof and sides of the aircraft.Branson’s private space tourism company now hopes to send tourists to space monthly from August.A ticket will set you back $450,000 (£356,000) and “demand is high”, according to the company’s website, with several hundred customers already in line to fly.A