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Virgin Galactic sent Richard Branson to edge of space: Rewatch the livestream

VSS Unity took Virgin's billionaire founder early Sunday morning. You can rewatch the broadcast here.

Jackson Ryan Former Science Editor
Jackson Ryan was CNET's science editor, and a multiple award-winning one at that. Earlier, he'd been a scientist, but he realized he wasn't very happy sitting at a lab bench all day. Science writing, he realized, was the best job in the world -- it let him tell stories about space, the planet, climate change and the people working at the frontiers of human knowledge. He also owns a lot of ugly Christmas sweaters.
Jackson Ryan

The VSS Unity during the Unity 21 mission to the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic

Update: Richard Branson successfully launched to space. Read about it here

Watch this: Watch Virgin Galactic launch Richard Branson to space on historic Unity 22 mission

Richard Branson, the 70-year-old billionaire behind space tourism company Virgin Galactic, is no stranger to making headlines -- he once drove a tank down Fifth Avenue to promote a new brand of cola. His latest and, perhaps, most extreme venture is to get to space aboard the company's rocket, known as VSS Unity. 

On Sunday, Branson launched into the stratosphere (and a little beyond) in his edge-of-spaceship. The mission, dubbed Unity 22, was available to stream via the CNET Highlights YouTube channel. You can now watch the replay below.

Space guru and CNET Science writer Eric Mack was on the ground at Virgin's Spaceport America during the lead up to the mission and captured the events leading up to the historic moment. You can also get more behind-the-scenes goodness by following Eric on Twitter and Instagram @EricCMack

Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic: See the space dream come to life

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And don't forget -- Branson isn't the only billionaire heading to space this month. Ex-Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos will be riding the first crewed Blue Origin rocket to space on July 20.

Update July 10: Removed reference to the Mojave desert, because it was incorrect. Forgive my terrible geography.