Image source, .

Here's a reminder of what happens next.

Virgin Galactic has launched today's historic flight.

For the first time, a mother-daughter duo is heading to the edge of space, along with the company's first customer who paid to be on board.

The launch of Virgin Galactic's first commercial flight with tourists on board is imminent.

Image source, Virgin Galactic

We've heard about the crew members taking part in the Galactic 02 mission, so now let's meet the people in charge of piloting it.

There are four in total - a pilot and commander who'll be inside the VSS Unity space rocket and a pilot and commander who'll be inside VMS Eve, Virgin's mothership which will carry the rocket on the first stage of its journey.

In VSS Unity, there's:

• Kelly Latimer, a pilot who's been flying since 1989. She has more than 7,000 hours experience, but this is her first space flight.
• CJ Sturckow, a commander who's been flying since 1984. He’s clocked up more than 8,400 hours of flight time - Galactic 02 is his eighth space flight.
• Beth Moses, a chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic, will also be on the rocket - she was the first woman to fly to space aboard a commercial space vehicle. For Galactic 02, she’ll fly with the crew to assess the inflight experience.

With less than ten minutes to go, you can watch today's Virgin Galactic flight by clicking on the Play button at the top of this page.

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned in our last post, it’s now finally the turn of private customers to head to the edge of space on a Virgin Galactic commercial flight.

The company has sold more than 800 tickets to people who want to ride over 80km (260,000ft) above Earth. The advertised price has been as high as $450,000 (£352,170) per person.

That’s more than double the initial price of a seat. The plan was to fly to space with paying customers back in 2007, when the price was $200,000. Some 200 customers forked out, but have waited years for technical challenges to be overcome.

Founder Sir Richard Branson justified one price rise in 2013 as the result of inflation.

Image source, SpaceX

US multi-millionaire Dennis Tito became the world's first ever space tourist in 2001, paying a reported $20m (£15.7m). More recently, Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin beat Virgin Galactic in the race to take paying passengers on short hops above the atmosphere.

In September 2021, four amateur astronauts blasted off from Florida on a private mission to orbit in a Dragon capsule provided by the SpaceX rocket company, founded by Elon Musk.

Sir Richard Branson became the first owner of a private space company to fly into space in 2021.

Last month, Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial flight when it took three people into spaceon a flight paid for by the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council.

Sir Richard now plans to begin sending to the edge of space the 800 or so individuals who've bought tickets to ride on his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, Unity.

Virgin Galactic’s second commercial flight is set to take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on schedule, in around 15 minutes' time.

Spanning 18,000 acres (73 sq km) and located next to the US Army White Sands Missile Range, the facility is one of the first purpose-built commercial spaceports in the world.

It's regularly used for testing and rocket launches by private space industry companies.

Spaceport America has 6,000 square miles (15,500 sq km) of restricted airspace, low population density - and, according to its website, about 340 days of sunshine per year and low humidity.

Regan Morris
Reporting from New Mexico

Blast-off is set for 08:30 local time - 15:30 in the UK.

Despite an initial delay heading to the runway, Virgin Galactic officials say the mission is set to take off as planned.

Here's the moment Keisha Schahaff, Ana Mayers and Jon Goodwin walked out from the hangar and interacted with the crowd in New Mexico.

A launch window will open in just under 25 minutes for today's Virgin Galactic flight to take off from the New Mexico desert.

Stay with us as we build up to the launch. You'll also be able to watch a live stream on this page.

Sophie Long
Reporting from New Mexico

Image source, Virgin Galactic

I've just spoken to Pauline Goodwin - the wife of Jon Goodwin, who'll be on today's flight. She says she feels very emotional, and very proud of her husband of more than 50 years.

She said she never doubted that this day would come.

Pauline told me they thought her husband's Parkinson’s disease might have caused a problem, as his symptoms became more noticeable, but he passed all the tests at every stage with flying colours.

She said he was doing something he always wanted to do.

Jon's 11-year-old grandson said he felt very proud of his grandad.

“Wow”, he told me, adding that he was looking forward to telling everyone about it when he gets back to school.

Two years ago, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson flew to an altitude of nearly 90km (56 miles) above the Earth in a rocket plane belonging to his Virgin Galactic company.

The trip made him the first of the space tourism entrepreneurs to enjoy a successful flight to space.

He described the moment as "an experience of a lifetime".

More now on University of Aberdeen physics student Ana Mayers - who actually kept this flight a secret from her colleagues at her work in the Granite City.

The 18-year-old's colleagues at a local burrito restaurant only learned of her voyage from a news report posted in their work group chat.

The staff of FreshMex will be tuning in to watch the scheduled launch in New Mexico in around 40 minutes' time.

Julia Lisicka, a manager at the Mexican eatery, said the news about Ana had come as an "extraordinary surprise”. Speaking of the moment the report was shared in their group chat, she told BBC Scotland: "It was very funny because she never mentioned it".

She added: "We were laughing, saying 'did you book off the day that you're flying to space?'

"She never said a word, it was a secret until it came out through the news. We're very excited for her.”

• Read more here

Sophie Long
Reporting from New Mexico

Colin James, CEO of the Antigua tourist board, says he's very excited and over the moon - along with everyone in Antigua.

Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Ana Mayers will today become the first Antiguans to go into space.

They're also the first mother and daughter duo to make the journey.

There is a huge watch party in Antigua. Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson will be there.

We're still building up to the launch of today's Galactic 02 mission, and one person who is eagerly waiting is Suzie Imber - a professor of space physics at the University of Leicester.

The former Nasa research scientist tells the BBC the mission has been a "long time coming". She hails the "start of a new era", with hopes of more frequent commercial space flights.

"Virgin Galactic have been working on this for many, many years," she says. "They have developed their own technologies, they have developed their own launch mechanism so have been through a hugely rigorous series of tests.

"Everyone is really excited this is finally beginning."

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

Image source, Virgin Galactic

Nineteen years after Virgin Galactic was founded on the idea of taking fare-paying passengers on short hops to the edge of space, it is now happening.

Jon Goodwin will be the first ticketed individual to step aboard the Unity craft. There are 800 or so who wish to follow him.

After nearly two decades of promise, Virgin Galactic now has to show those customers and its investors that it can fly safely and regularly. Anyone can do the maths.

With a flight cadence of one outing a month and with a maximum of perhaps five customers in the cabin at any one time, it's still going to take a long time for everyone to get their chance. Indeed, it's not possible with just one rocket plane.

Virgin Galactic has already announced plans to introduce planes that can fly once a week, but we won't see those enter commercial service until 2026 at the earliest.

In the meantime, Unity has to keep demonstrating its reliability and frequency. In that way, customers and investors will remain patient.

Sophie Long
Reporting from New Mexico

The Galactic Crew 2 have just walked out of the hangar.

They were greeted by cheers from friends, family and members of the press who were waiting there to wish them well on their life-changing journey.

All of them gave high fives to people as they walked past.

Jon Goodwin, 80, was given a huge hug by his wife Pauline and his sons, who know just how long he’s waited for this moment. He was one of the first people to buy a ticket back in 2005.

Today’s flight carries much significance for space tourism:

• It’s Virgin Galactic's first commercial space flight for tourists and will carry its first ticketed individual
• Jon Goodwin - who purchased a ticket to ride - is the first of the 800 or so individuals who have bought a seat on the rocket plane
• It's also the first-ever trip to the edge of space by a mother-daughter duo
• Anastatia Myers, 18, will become the second youngest person to go to space, travelling with her mother Keisha Schahaff
• This will be the seventh time Unity has flown to the edge of space
• The first commercial space flight by Virgin Galactic in June saw a group of researchers taken to the edge of space on a flight that was funded by the Italian air force

Image source, Virgin Galactic

Mother and daughter Keisha Schahaf and Ana Mayers won their seats in a competition.

Keisha was on a flight from Antigua to London in 2021 to organise a visa for her daughter - who was moving from the Caribbean to study at the University of Aberdeen - when she saw an advert for a sweepstake.

Months later, she found out they’d won.

She said afterwards: "Suddenly, who's walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The whole team just swarmed into my house saying 'you're the winner, you're going to space’."

Former Team GB Olympic canoeist Jon Goodwin (below) from Newcastle-under-Lyme will become the second person with Parkinson's to go to space, as well as the first Olympian.

He paid $250,000 (£191,000), for his ticket in 2005 but had feared his diagnosis would mean he couldn’t take part.

Image source, Family handout