It was just 4 months ago when the Gadling team visited the Mojave Desert space port to witness the unveiling of the VSS Enterprise - the actual Virgin Galactic plane that will be flying paying guests into space on the first commercial space flight service.

Yesterday was another huge milestone for the team - they took the VSS Enterprise for its first "captive carry flight". This flight involved flying the mothership and the spaceship, without disconnecting. In future flight tests, they'll fly both craft, and let the spaceship glide back to earth.

Tests will continue well into 2011, prior to the start of actual commercial space operations. The starting price for tickets is $200,000, with a minimum deposit of $20,000.

Filed under: North America, Airlines