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Day here at space port america. this is a big deal. it's the first time in the history of the world that somebody has built a spacecraft and then flown it into space. it all started a little over two hours ago when sir richard branson and two pilots and three other mission specialists took off on spaceship 2 unit, attached to the belly of the mother ship eve, named after richard branson's own mom. they flew for about 50 minutes to proper altitude, at which point the mother ship released spaceship 2. it freefell for a about two seconds until the pilots took control. this one is piloted by actua...

Dl dream of reaching space. and richard branson becoming the first of the billionaire space barons as he approaches space. you must wonder what he's feeling as he approaches those few moments of weightlessness. >> more than 2,000 miles per hour. put that into perspective for us. >> reporter: the amount of g-forces they must feel. you saw that moment of freefall and the second that rocket engine ignites. those rocket engines are pushed back, and they are literally pressed down with all of those g-forces. when you hear about these soon-to-be astronauts, i should say, but when you hear about how ...

Center in new mexico. u what is your sense of that plane as it was taking off, how fast does it go and why do pilots love flying it? >> they love flying it because they're actually flying it. much like the space shuttle, this is a pretty much fully analog plane in the sense that these pilots are the ones firing those rocket engines, turning them off and then deploying the space plane's feathering system to allow it to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. you know what i was thinking about, it was ten years ago this month that nasa retired a very similar-looking spacecraft, the space shuttle. it to...

To the edge of space aboard virgin galactic's rocket powered plane sunday. if everything goes according to plan. the spacecraft vss unity will take off from an airplane runway attached beneath the wing of a massive mother ship. how does it work? it gets to about 50,000 feet. the mother ship will then release unity, the rocket engines fire up, send this craft up into space like the space shuttle used to work three times faster than the speed of sound. the trip would make branson the first billionaire ever to travel to space aboard a vehicle he helped fund. beaten bezos by just nine days. love i...

The spacecraft vss unity will take off from an airplane runway attached beneath the wing of a massive mother ship. how does it work? it gets to about 50,000 feet. the mother ship will then release unity, the rocket engines fire up, send this craft up into space like the space shuttle used to work three times faster than the speed of sound. the trip would make branson the first billionaire ever to travel to space aboard a vehicle he helped fund. beaten bezos by just nine days. love it or hate it? why would you have a strong feeling either way? this is what is happening. commercializing space fl...