History was written June 21, 2004 in the Mojave Desert when the world’s first privately built spaceship was flown to space by a private astronaut-pilot for the first time.

This led to the start of Virgin Galactic and commercialization of manned space flight. Brave and extraordinary efforts are still made to develop technology and increasing access to space with suborbital manned flights. New rockets, products and services are under development that we will soon see.

Read what was said in 2004 > Historic Space Launch Attempt Scheduled For June 21

Read reflections on the anniversary from Virgin Galactic’s CEO George Whiteside > Making history in Mojave