Sir Richard Branson is hoping to finally make his space tourism dream a reality as Virgin Galactic today launches its first commercial mission carrying paying customers.

The rocket company is preparing for take off in the New Mexico desert for its “Galactic 01” mission after nearly two decades of preparation.

The mission is due to begin at around 4pm BST, or 11am local time. Virgin Galactic’s mothership - White Knight Two - will fly to around 50,000 ft. 

Then the space plane, VSS Unity, will drop from under its belly and blast off towards the edge of space, carrying six passengers and crew.

The launch comes months after Sir Richard lost hundreds of millions of dollars with the failure of Virgin Orbit, his other space venture, which went bankrupt earlier this year after it botched a mission out of the UK.

The Telegraph will be following the build up and the action below, while you can watch a livestream of the mission above.