VIDEO: NTSB news conference on start of SpaceShipTwo investigation

Virgin Galactic’s commercial SpaceShipTwo rocket plane made its highest and fastest flight to date Thursday, moving the company’s space tourism ambitions closer to reality more than three years after a fatal accident suspended powered test flights.

Investigators have plenty of evidence to sift through as they look into the cause of the fatal crash of a Virgin Galactic rocket plane, but the acting chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said the inquiry may take up to a year to complete.

Virgin Galactic’s second piloted suborbital spaceship made its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday, three-and-a-half years after the loss of an earlier model in an accident that killed one test pilot and injured another.