Virgin Galactic launches first space tourism flight - exact time, how to watch and who is on board

Virgin Galactic is getting ready for its first-ever tourism space flight - and the launch will be streamed live.

Three passengers will be on board the VSS Unity - Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old former Olympian with Parkinson's disease, from Newcastle, is among them. He will be joined by Jeisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastasia Mayers, a physics student in Aberdeen.

The two women will be the first-ever mother and daughter to make a trip to space after winning the spot in a prize draw. Meanwhile, Mr Goodwin secured his seat 18 years ago after purchasing a ticket worth £194,500.

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After taking off in the mothership VMS Eve, VSS Unity will separate and take the passengers into sub-orbital space, where they will briefly experience weightlessness, while looking back at Earth.

The three passengers will be joined by astronaut instructor Beth Moses. The company is calling its first private astronaut mission Galactic 02.

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The tourist trip comes after Sir Richard Branson successfully completed Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight in June which saw Italian astronauts enter space in order to conduct a number of scientific experiments.

Virigin Galactic says that over the past 10 years it has sold around 800 tickets to paying customers wanting to fly to space. While they initially went on sale for 200,000 dollars (£158,000) each, tickets now cost 450,000 dollars (£356,000) per person.

The VSS Unity will launch from New Mexico in the US on August 10. It is set to take off at 9am from Spaceport America. In the UK, that's 4pm BST. The trip is expected to