Virgin flies to the edge

VIRGIN Galactic’s tourism spaceship has climbed more than 80km above the Californian Desert, reaching for the first time the boundary of space.

The rocket ship hit an altitude of 82km before beginning its gliding descent, mission official Enrico Palermo said.

“We made it to space,” Mr Palermo said.

The spaceship took off attached to an aeroplane from Mojave, California.

It marks the first manned flight to space from US soil since 2011.