2023-07-17 19:29:02
Updated Monday, July 17, 2023 – 19:29
The ticket is valued at almost half a million dollars and the raffle was held at a company fundraiser.
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin GalacticRichard DrewAPSpace TourismVirgin Galactic successfully completes its first commercial suborbital flight, launching its space tourism program
An Antigua and Barbuda woman and her daughter, as well as an 80-year-old man, will fly into space with Virgin Galactic on August 10.
This mission, named Galactic 02, will be the second commercial flight by the American company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, but if the test flights are included, it will be the seventh time the spacecraft has traveled into space.
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18, they won the ticket in a raffle after participating in a fundraising event organized by Virgin Galactic. The amount the mother donated was not disclosed, but donations start at $10.
It was Richard Branson himself who broke the news to Keisha Schahaff by going to her house to deliver the astronaut suit. “As a child, I was always fascinated by space”Keisha Schahaff then declared to AFP. “This is a great opportunity to feel alive.”
The third passenger, John Goodwin, 80, participated in the 1972 Olympic Games and he will become the second person with Parkinson’s disease to go into space, but not the oldest because the record was broken by William Shatner, at the age of 90. On board the ship will also travel Beth Moses, a Virgin Galactic employee, and two pilots.
The flight takes about an hour and a half, but passengers only spend a few minutes in space. A plane first takes off from a runway in New Mexico and at about 15 km high drops the ship, which looks like a large private jet. He then starts the engine and accelerates vertically until reaching an altitude of more than 80 km, the limit of space according to the US military. Immediately afterwards, it descends gliding.
Fewer than 700 people have flown into space to date, according to Virgin Galactic, which has promised one space flight every month. Around 800 customers have purchased their tickets, initially for a price of between $200,000 and $250,000 per passenger, which has risen to $450,000.
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights.
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