( CNN ) -- Billionaire Richard Branson 's planned commercial spacecraft had a successful test flight Thursday , rocketing into the skies over California after being dropped from its carrier plane , his company announced . Branson 's Virgin Galactic said SpaceShipTwo broke the sound barrier , climbed from 42,000 feet to 69,000 feet over the Mojave Desert under rocket power and descended using its tilt-wing `` feathering '' maneuver . It 's the second powered flight for SpaceShipTwo , which is designed to carry up to six passengers on what will be suborbital flights at first . `` In addition to achieving the highest altitude and greatest speed to date , the test flight demonstrated the vehicle 's full technical mission profile in a single flight for the first time ... All of the test objectives were successfully completed , '' the company said . In a video showing highlights of Thursday 's test flight , Branson said Virgin Galactic plans to start taking passengers aloft in 2014 -- a slight delay from the December 2013 marker he set down at Britain 's Farnborough International Airshow in June . `` Virgin Galactic is now gearing up for the commercial service , finalizing cabin interiors , flight suits , training programs and the multiple other details required to offer hundreds of aspiring astronauts a safe and awe-inspiring journey , '' he said . More than 500 would-be astronauts , including actor Ashton Kutcher , have so far signed up for the two-hour , $ 200,000-a-seat flights . Virgin executives have said they expect to have 600 bookings in the first two years of service . CNN 's Joe Sutton contributed to this report .
It broke the sound barrier during Thursday 's test . It 's expected to enter commercial service in 2014 at $ 100 a month . ` ` All of the test objectives were successfully achieved , '' Virgin Galactic says .