Founded nearly 20 years ago by Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic has been developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists at around $450,000 (£363,000) per ticket.

The latest VSS Unity flight took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico and saw the six crew members fly for 14 minutes and experience a short period of weightlessness.

The spaceplane was carried up to an altitude of 44,500 feet by a mothership before being released to fire its rockets to make the final push into space.

Other than a shorter test flight last month, yesterday’s test was the first for two years after US regulators opened an investigation in 2021 into why a July flight - with Sir Richard on board - saw the spaceship deviate significantly from its intended path on its return to Earth.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier has acknowledged the delays and missed deadlines over the years. On Thursday, he said seeing the crew’s reactions...