The SpaceShipTwo vehicle, capable of carrying six paying customers on a suborbital flight (along with two pilots), has flown for the first time, although it remained attached to the mothership the entire time:

This is Virgin’s glossier presentation on the occasion of SpaceShipTwo’s rollout in December, 2009 at the Mojave spaceport:

In the following video, pilot Brian Binnie (who flex SpaceShipOne) talks about the future possibilities of commercial spaceflight:

According to Wired, we should be able to expect SpaceShipTwo to follow a timeline something like this:

SpaceShipTwo Makes First (Captive) Flight

Virgin Galactic has not set a date for commercial space flights, but has said passenger flights would not happen before 2011 at the earliest. According to the company, once glide flights are complete, the team will progress through subsonic powered flights, supersonic powered flights, and finally suborbital space flights. It will then undergo a lengthy certification process with the Federal Aviation Administration before launching the first commercial passenger space flights.

At the other end of the space tourism spectrum: The cheapest and simplest human spacecraft

See also:
- The Xcor Lynx space ship
- One step closer to space tourism