--- title: Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight | TIME description: Richard Branson's thoughts on SpaceShipTwo's First Rocket-Powered Test Flight. canonical: https://time.com/video/tKMw6cwG/ og:title: Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight og:description: Richard Branson's thoughts on SpaceShipTwo's First Rocket-Powered Test Flight. og:url: https://time.com/video/tKMw6cwG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tKMw6cwG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight twitter:description: Richard Branson's thoughts on SpaceShipTwo's First Rocket-Powered Test Flight. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/tKMw6cwG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight [Watch (HLS stream): Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's on First Rocket-Powered Test Flight](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tKMw6cwG.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2013-05-02. Richard Branson's thoughts on SpaceShipTwo's First Rocket-Powered Test Flight._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:33 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Richard Branson's Net Worth](/video/FUSlbvtf/) ### Richard Branson's Net Worth [Branson Remarks on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash](/video/4NQurxvE/) ### Branson Remarks on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash [Virgin Galactic: First Rocket-Powered, Supersonic Test Flight](/video/EniBI9wA/) ### Virgin Galactic: First Rocket-Powered, Supersonic Test Flight --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] Up the hill. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] Eight and a half years ago, when we embarked on this program. I would, never thought that it was gonna take us eight and a half years to reach this milestone. And, I think it just proves just how difficult... Rocket science really is. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] It is strange to think, that only 500 people had been to space. And our dream, is to ultimately enable many kids, who are watching this program to be able to go into space. And , I think, we can make that dream become reality. Five, three, two, one. Release, release, release. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ NOISE ] Today, we achieved a huge milestone for the company, which was that we broke the speed of sound and we had our first powered flight and team was just incredibly jazzed. We are now , off to the races in terms of powered flight. So, this was the first powered flight , we'll have, A few more, this year, as we extend the burn times, and as we approach, our first base plate, and what comes after that is commercial service. [ SOUND ] [ CROSSTALK ] [ NOISE ] [ UNKNOWN ] And now, we will be ramping up the building of space ships, we will be ramping up the building of rocket ships, we are going to be ramping up the building of motherships. You know, holding the heir of space travel. It's gonna be tremendously exciting. Everything's possible, I think after today. 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