Washington: Space tourism company Virgin Galactic blasted its SpaceShipTwo reusable space vehicle nearly 13.5 miles into the air, and reached a speed of Mach 1.4 on Friday.

The space vehicle left Mojave Air and Space Port strapped to the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, which took it to around 46,000 feet.

WhiteKnightTwo then dropped the plane, which then used its own rocket motor to reach 71,000 ft. - setting a new record for the craft.

Sir Richard Branson said in a statement that 2014 would be the year when they will finally put the spaceship in her natural environment of space.

The flight was Virgin Galactic system`s third supersonic, rocket-powered test after dozens of subsonic flights.