After its first spaceflight in December, Virgin Galactic sent the same vessel past the edge of the atmosphere for a second time on Friday. This time, the rocket plane went higher and faster than before — and it had three crew members on board instead of two.

The flight marked another step forward in a new kind of space race — one that aims to allow private citizens (who can afford the ticket) an opportunity to exit our atmosphere.

It was the company’s fifth supersonic-powered test flight, and it reached an altitude of nearly 56 miles before returning safely to the Mojave Desert runway in California where it took off. Beth Moses, an astronaut trainer and microgravity research expert, was in the cabin as the company’s first test passenger in space.

The SpaceShipTwo craft, a suborbital, rocket-fueled space plane called the VSS Unity, lifted off shortly after 8 a.m. local time. It was carried aloft under a larger carrier plane for nearly an hour and then released. Next, its rocket ignited to propel the vessel, and its three crew members, up to where the sky turned black.