As Neil Armstrong took humanity's first steps on the moon in 1969, an eager 9-year-old Ron Rosano watched from 238,900 miles away while vacationing with his parents in California.

Glued to the small television screen in the common area at a mountainous resort, Rosano watched a news broadcast as the Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Armstrong later stepped out of the lunar module to walk on its surface.

Even then, the historic moment left an indelible mark on a boy who would spend his life gazing up at the skies, wishing he could himself transcend his earthly bonds and exist among the cosmos.

“To see that and then go outside and look up at the moon and think to myself, 'Wow there’s two guys walking up around there, how did that happen?'” Rosano said, "That’s been a huge inspiration throughout my life.”

But Rosano never really thought that venturing to space was within reach. After all, hadn't Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and the multitude of U.S. astronauts since trained extensively before exploring the final frontier?

In 2004, those possibilities changed when Rosano heard that Virgin Galactic, the spaceflight company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, was selling tickets to space for regular civilians with deep pockets. He booked his own cosmic passage in 2010, recognizing that even though his journey to space was likely still years away, it sure beat never.

Rosano now stands among a select few civilians who have reached the stars aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft after the company began offering regular commercial flights in August. The flight window for Virgin Galactic's sixth commercial spaceflight opens Friday.

“For most of my life, it was always military test pilots or incredibly high achievers in medicine and science," Rosano told USA TODAY in a phone interview from his home in Muir Beach, Calif. "It's the dream of a lifetime."

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Rosano recalls gazing at Earth from Virgin Galactic craft

After more than a decade of waiting, Rosano finally got his chance to journey to the edge of space last year at 63 years old.

Rosano, who co-owns and manages his family’s property management company, launched in October aboard "Galactic 04." Once Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo reached 54 miles above Earth’s surface, Rosano and two other customers spent a few weightless minutes marveling at our planet from a vantage point few get to experience.

Prior to liftoff, Rosano and the others spent three days training in New Mexico to familiarize themselves with zero gravity movement and the equipment they’d be wearing.

But nothing could prepare him for the transformative moments that awaited him in low-Earth orbit, which is exactly what Rosano had longed for.

“Let the experience bring to you whatever it may bring,” Rosano said he told himself. “You don’t know what you’re going to take out of it.”

Once in space, Rosano gazed upon mountain rages, white sands and the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere. In that moment, Rosano was struck by the realization that all living beings exist within that line, which is all that stands between life on earth and the cold dark void of the universe.

"I knew it was there, I've talked to astronauts and that’s always one of the most popular things you see, but still I was just transfixed by it," Rosano said, "It’s a vibrant, vivid electric blue that’s got a sense of aliveness in it.”

As for seeing Earth from afar, Rosano was quite literally at a loss for words: "It’s really kind of indescribable,” he said.

The entire trip took a little more than an hour before the spaceship landed like a regular aircraft at SpacePort America in the New Mexico desert. Once back on the ground, Rosano was greeted by his wife and the five children they have from previous marriages, all of whom were there to support him.

The dawn of the commercial space age

Virgin Galactic's ticketed flights helped usher in the dawn of the commercial space age in 2023 when the company finally began offering its long-awaited flights.

Tickets were $200,000 when Rosano purchased his in 2010 for a flight aboard one of Branson's rockets, but have since climbed to $450,000.

The company, as well as its competitors like Blue Origin, are expected to continue selling tickets to wealthy customers who crave the experience of a few minutes of weightlessness – coupled with a view of Earth that can't be beat.

While Virgin Galactic's sixth civilian customer mission is expected this month, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will likely resume civilian flights at some point in 2024 after a successful uncrewed science mission in December.

Even the International Space Station has opened its doors to private astronauts who visit to do scientific experiments.

As early as this month, the first all-European commercial astronaut crew will embark for the famed outpost as part of Houston-based company Axiom's third mission to the station.

And last August, NASA itself teamed up with Elon Musk's SpaceX to begin offering a commercial crew program ferrying trained astronauts to the ISS for science missions. The eighth crew is targeted to launch no earlier than mid-February.

Will spaceflight become accessible for more people? Rosano hopes so

For Rosano, who has spent years recording human suborbital flights for his Suborbital Flight Journal website, being a small part of this new era has been an honor.

Much of Rosano's life has been dedicated to educating youth about astronomy and sharing his passion for space travel.

Rosano has spent 25 years as an educator with the nonprofit Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Since 2008, he's been a NASA “solar system ambassador,” offering community presentations on Mars rovers, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Apollo Moon landings and more.

Now that he's been to space himself?

“I’m not going to see the sky the same way anymore,” Rosano said. “I’m seeing it with a lid on it, so to speak.”

Knowing that he came back from his trip forever changed, Rosano hopes that space travel becomes more commonplace – and more affordable – in the years to come.

“It was a profound experience for me to go and I'm so thrilled to have done it, but equally exciting to me is, you'll have dozens, hundreds, thousands of people going on suborbital flights in the future," Rosano said. "That will bring about positive change to how we as humans view the planet, and I’m glad to have made this possible for more people."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

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