Watch: Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight returns safely to earth

Virgin Galactic has launched its first space tourism flight, blasting a former Olympian from Newcastle and a mother-daughter duo above the Earth.

The flight carried the three civilian passengers to the edge of space, before returning to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The passengers experienced a brief period of weightlessness as the craft reached 85km above the earth.

The passengers - 46-year-old Keisha Schahaff, her 18-year-old daughter Anastatia Mayers and 80-year-old Olympian Jon Goodwin - are now officially astronauts.

This launch follows the company’s inaugural commercial trip earlier this summer, when three Italian citizens were taken into low orbit for scientific research experiments.