New Mexico, USA. Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson makes his first spaceflight, a suborbital flight at an altitude of 82 km (51 mi) in a horizontal takeoff vehicle called Unity. The craft carries six passengers. Branson thus becomes the first private individual to travel on a suborbital flight aboard a spacecraft he helped fund. There has been debate as to whether Virgin Galactic, which approaches but does not reach the Kármán line, would actually have achieved such a first private commercial spaceflight. The United States and NASA define the edge of outer space as 80 km (50 mi) above Earth (which is approximately the minimum possible altitude a satellite in a highly elliptical Earth orbit can reach and sustain its velocity). All other spacefaring countries and the FAI define outer space as 100 km (62 mi) above the Kármán line.
