Billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic gets approval to fly people to space
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The approval is bound to turn up the pressure on rivals SpaceX and Blue Origin in the nascent and expensive space tourism sector
After getting approval from the US aviation safety regulator on Friday, billionaire Richard Branson's spaceship company Virgin Galactic can now fly people to space.
The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) comes at a critical time for Branson as his space venture faces off against Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Branson, Bezos and Musk have been investing billions of dollars on their rocket startups.
Branson, who is reportedly flying to space himself in a bid to beat rival billionaire Bezos to the final frontier, received the green light just a month after a successful test flight.
Virgin Galactic last month completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico in May, as its SpaceShipTwo craft with a capacity of six passengers glided to a landing on a runway safely with its two pilots.
"Today's approval by the FAA ... gives us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer," Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
(With inputs from agencies)