Spaceship makes 1st flight strapped to mothership

Virgin Galactic says in a statement on its Web site that Monday's flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port was successful.
The spaceship remained attached to the specially designed jet-powered mothership throughout the flight.
In the future, the spaceship will be launched from the larger aircraft, fire its rocket and carry passengers on a suborbital thrill ride into space before gliding to a landing — for about $200,000 a ticket.
It's the second generation of the Burt Rutan-designed system that sent the first privately developed, manned rocket into space in 2004.