Swashbuckling entrepreneur Richard Branson hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket ship on Sunday in his boldest adventure yet, beating out fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of about 53 miles (88 kilometres) over the New Mexico desert - enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth — and then safely glided back home to a runway landing. “Seventeen years of hard work to get us this far,” Branson said as he congratulated his team on the trip back.