Tourism rocket ship reaches space on test flight!

• Soon it will take paying passengers on short trips to space.

Virgin Galactic says its tourism spaceship has climbed more than 50 miles high, which the company considers the boundary of space.

Virgin Space Ship Unity was released from a carrier aircraft over California's Mojave Desert early Thursday and ignited its rocket engine.

The spacecraft with two test pilots at the controls quickly hurtled upward and out of sight from viewers on the ground.

Mission official Enrico Palermo says it reached an altitude of 51 miles (82 kilometers) before beginning its gliding descent. It landed minutes later.

The company plans to eventually take paying passengers on short trips to space.