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Virgin Galactic had it’s maiden flight over the Mohave Desert in California on Monday. The VSS Enterprise has a successful captive carry flight attached to a carrier plane. Richard Branson’s dream of space travel for ordinary people is fast becoming a reality.

Burt Rutan, the founder of Scaled Composites who manufactured the 60 foot long rocket plane, said this flight signaled the start of what is believed will be successful for the spaceship’s flight test program. The first test reached an altitude of 45,000 feet. A second test in the near future will be 60,000 feet over the Earth when it will fire rockets to propel into space from the carrier plane. Test flights will continue throughout 2011.

Virgin Galactic is considering one flight a week with 6 tourists aboard who will pay $200,000 for the ride. These tourists will also train for at least three days before boarding. Currently about 60,000 people have put their names on the waiting list for seats.

Their feat of engineering goes to show that when someone has a dream and keeps trying to have other visualize it reality can happen. Years ago when the first Star Trek came out no one ever thought much about the things Captain Kirk and his crew used on that particular Enterprise. But today we have cell phones and other instruments that were fashioned from the props Kirk and crew used. For only one season we watched and dreamed. Apparently Richard Branson followed his dream. Good for him! We need more dreamers in this world, ones who will do the research, consider all the options, and then forge ahead and build their dream. As for the Enterprise, may her eventual virgin voyage into space be all that Mr. Branson envisioned.