亿万富翁理查德布兰森乘带翼火箭飞船到达太空，并安全返回地球

Thrill-seeking billionaire Richard Branson has reached space aboard his own winged rocket ship and returned to earth safely in his boldest adventure yet.寻求刺激的亿万富翁理查德布兰森乘坐他自己的带翼火箭飞船到达太空，并在他迄今为止最大胆的冒险中安全返回地球。

The feat vaults the nearly 71-year-old past fellow billionaire and rival Jeff Bezos, who is planning to fly to space in a craft of his own nine days from now.这一壮举超越了这位近 71 岁的前亿万富翁和竞争对手杰夫贝索斯，他计划在 9 天后用自己的飞船飞向太空。

With about 500 people watching, including Mr Branson's wife, children and grandchildren, a twin-fuselage aircraft with his space plane attached underneath took off in the first stage of the flight.在包括布兰森先生的妻子、孩子和孙子在内的大约 500 人观看的情况下，一架双机身飞机在飞行的第一阶段起飞，下面连接着他的太空飞机。

The space plane then detached from the mother ship at an altitude of about 13km and fired its engine, reaching the edge of space about 88km up.太空飞机随后在约13公里的高度脱离母舰并启动发动机，到达约88公里的太空边缘。

After a few minutes of weightlessness for the crew, the space plane is began its decent, set to end with a glide to a runway landing.在机组人员失重几分钟后，太空飞机开始正常运行，以滑翔到跑道着陆结束。

The weather at Spaceport America delayed the historic flight by 90 minutes but TV host Stephen Colbert kicked off the livestream shortly after 12.30am on Monday (AEST).美国太空港的天气将这次历史性的飞行推迟了 90 分钟，但电视主持人斯蒂芬科尔伯特在周一（澳大利亚东部标准时间）凌晨 12 点 30 分后不久开始了直播。

Soon after, it was revealed the VMS Unity had already taken off with the "mothership" VMS Eve, from where it blasted into space.不久之后，据透露，VMS Unity 已经与“母舰”VMS Eve 一起起飞，从那里它爆炸到太空。

Then, about 1.30am, Mr Branson and his crew reached the peak of their flight, almost 90km above the earth.然后，大约凌晨 1.30，布兰森先生和他的机组人员到达了他们的飞行高峰，距离地球近 90 公里。

Roughly 10 minutes later, the Unity glided to a safe touchdown back on Earth.大约 10 分钟后，联合号滑翔到地球上安全着陆。

Ever the showman, Mr Branson dramatically counted down the days to lift-off via Twitter.作为表演者，布兰森先生戏剧性地倒计时通过推特起飞的日子。

"It's a beautiful day to go to space," he tweeted hours before the flight, posting a photo of himself with fellow billionaire and space-tourism rival Elon Musk.“这是去太空的美好一天，”他在飞行前几个小时发推文，并发布了一张自己与亿万富翁和太空旅游竞争对手埃隆马斯克的照片。

Mr Branson views the brief up-and-down trip as a confidence builder — not only for the 600-plus people already holding reservations and waiting in the wings, but potential space tourists willing to plunk down a few hundred-thousand dollars for a shot at space.布兰森先生认为这次短暂的颠簸之旅是一种信心建立者——不仅对 600 多人已经预订和等待的人来说，而且潜在的太空游客愿意花几十万美元买一次 在空间。