Sir Richard Branson has watched on as Virgin Galactic's second SpaceShipTwo successfully glided through its first free-flying test, more than two years after a man was killed when the first craft crashed.
The SpaceShipTwo, dubbed VSS Unity, landed in Mojave, California, about 10 minutes after it cleanly detached from its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo.
Virgin Group founder Branson joined Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides and other onlookers to witness the test flight, smiling and clapping as VSS Unity's two pilots manned the vehicle back on to the runway.
Astronaut Tim Peake also sent his well-wishes to the Virgin team as the test glide got under way. He tweeted: "Good luck with this new phase of the test programme @virgingalactic - safe flight #pushingboundaries."
After further glide flights, the next step in the group's ongoing mission to make space tourism a reality will be to conduct rocket-powered flights to test the Unity's hybrid motor.