A new Virgin Galactic space flight is scheduled for August 10, with an 80-year-old man on board as well as a mother and daughter, having won their places in a lottery. This mission, named Galactic 02, will be the second commercial flight of the American company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, after a first carried out at the end of June. Including the test flights, this will be the seventh time the spacecraft has flown into space.
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18, are both from Antigua and Barbuda and are to become the first people from the Caribbean islands to float in zero gravity. Keisha Schahaff won this award by participating in a fundraiser organized by Virgin Galactic. The amount of the donation she made was not revealed, but these started as low as $10.
“I have always been fascinated by space”
The news had been announced to Keisha Schahaff by Richard Branson in person, who had surprised her by going to her house to give her her astronaut suit. “As a child, I was always fascinated by space,” Keisha Schahaff told AFP at the time. “It’s a great opportunity for me to feel alive. »
The third passenger, Jon Goodwin, participated in the Olympic Games in 1972. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014, he will be the second person with this disease to go into space. At 80, however, he will not be the oldest to cross the final frontier – a record held by William Shatner, at 90. Also on board will be Virgin Galactic employee Beth Moses and two pilots.
The flight lasts around 1.5 hours, but passengers only spend a few minutes in space.
A huge carrier plane takes off first from a conventional runway in New Mexico, then at an altitude of about 15 km, drops the vessel which looks like a large private jet. It then turns on its engine and accelerates vertically until it exceeds an altitude of 80 km – the limit of space according to the American army. It then descends while gliding.
Fewer than 700 people have been to space so far, according to Virgin Galactic, which has promised spaceflight every month. About 800 customers bought their tickets — initially priced between $200,000 and $250,000 per passenger, later raised to $450,000. Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights.