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SpaceX and Virgin Galactic: countdown to the era of commercial space flight

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Richard Lawler
And now they’re back.

The crew of the Galactic 01 mission has returned safely after their brief trip to space aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity vehicle. A successful end to the company’s first commercial flight at least finally puts it on the board in the race between SpaceX and Virgin Galactic for commercial spaceflight after SpaceX took a paid crew to the Space Station last year.

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