Virgin Galactic soars more than 30% in pre-market

Virgin Galactic soars more than 30% in pre-market.

Virgin Galactictook a step closer to completing development of its space tourism system on Saturday, successfully flying its first spaceflight in more than two years.

The company's spacecraft, named VSS Unity, was carried up to an altitude of about 44,000 feet by a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve. The aircraft then released the spacecraft, which fired its rocket engine and accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound.

After performing a slow backflip in microgravity at the edge of space – reaching an altitude of 89.2 kilometers, or about 293,000 feet – Unity returned through the atmosphere in a glide. The spacecraft landed back at the runway of Spaceport America in New Mexico that it took off from earlier.

"It was flawless," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told CNBC about the flight.