SpaceShipTwo made its first active flight

About the ambitious project of the suborbital space shuttle SpaceShipTwo on the hub has already been discussed several times ( competition is intensifying in the space tourism market , photos of SpaceShipTwo , through thorns to the stars ).
And the other day, it seems that the project has entered a new phase - the ship made its first active flight, in which it was able to overcome the sound barrier. All previous flights SpaceShipTwo made only in planning mode.

On Monday, the White Knight Two carrier aircraft took off from an airfield in the California desert, gained a height of almost 15 kilometers, on which the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane separated from it, after which pilots Mark Staki and Mike Alsbury switched on the rocket engine. He worked for only 16 seconds, but this was enough for the ship to overcome the sound barrier, gaining a speed of 1.2 mach. Then SpaceShipTwo successfully landed at the airport of departure.
Richard Branson , the owner of Virgin Galactic , plans to conduct several more tests before SpaceShipTwo can fly into space:

A few more test flights with a gradual increase in engine operating time, and we will return here to observe its flight into space.