A Virgin Galactic rocket plane reached space on Thursday and returned safely to the California desert, capping off years of difficult testing to become the first US commercial human flight to reach space since America's shuttle program ended in 2011.

The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft took off Thursday morning from the Mojave Air and Space Port about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.

The plane reentered the atmosphere at 2.5 times the speed of sound and landed a few minutes later.

Billionaire Richard Branson, who is behind the rocket project, said 700 people have already signed up to go into space.

The flight had two pilots onboard as well as a mannequin named Annie as a stand-in passenger. 

Billionaire businessmen from Branson, to Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk have been racing to offer space tourism to the wealthy. Musk's SpaceX already hooked Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to be the company's first passenger on a trip around the moon on its Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, tentatively scheduled for 2023.

Among those already signed up for for Virgin Galactic are actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber. It will cost them $250,000 for a 90-minute thrill ride that could kick off as early as next year.

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