Image: – (Virgin Galactic)
Image: – (Virgin Galactic)
The VSS Unity spacecraft flew 80-year-old Briton Jon Goodwin, 46-year-old Keisha Schahaff from the Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda and their 18-year-old daughter Anastatia Mayers on Thursday to an altitude of 88 kilometers above the earth. The space tourists could see the curvature of the Earth and briefly enjoy weightlessness before returning to Earth.
Launched from New Mexico, Mission Galactic 02 was Virgin Galactic’s first flight with tourists on board. The company, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, had already completed its first commercial flight at the end of June, taking two members of the Italian Air Force and an Italian researcher into space. The Italians made several brief attempts there.
Won tickets in a lottery
Keisha Schahaff had won two tickets for the space flight with Virgin Galactic in a lottery almost two years ago. At the time, Branson traveled to Antigua and Barbuda to personally inform them of their win. Schahaff took her daughter Anastatia, who is studying philosophy and physics in Scotland.
Image: – (Virgin Galactic)
The third passenger on Thursday’s flight, Jon Goodwin, had been a canoeist at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 2014 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was now the second person in history with Parkinson’s to fly into space.
Planned monthly flights
At Virgin Galactic, a carrier aircraft first brings the “VSS Unity” to an altitude of around 15 kilometers. There, the spaceship, which looks like a private jet, disengages and flies further into space on its own. Founded in 2004, the company is now aiming for monthly flights into space. In July 2021, Richard Branson had personally participated in a space flight. After that, the company had to take a longer break for technical improvements.
The company competes with Blue Origin, the company of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, which has already sent 31 people into space on short suborbital flights. Since an accident in September 2022, however, his rocket has remained on the ground.
Source: Nachrichten
