Video: SpaceX launches first mission of 2020 (members only)

With two veteran test pilots at the controls, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane climbed to the edge of space for the first time Thursday in a major achievement for Richard Branson’s long-sought ambition to begin regular commercial hops with space tourists, and the first piloted flight by a U.S. vehicle above an altitude of 50 miles since the last space shuttle mission in 2011.

The flight marked the first launch of Direct to Cell-capable Starlink satellites from Florida. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 10:16 p.m. EDT (0216 UTC) on Tuesday.

A Chinese rocket placed three experimental military surveillance satellites in orbit Friday, the second set of related triplets launched in less than two months.