With three tourists on board, the “VSS Unity” has taken off into space. After the successful premiere, the private space company Virgin Galactic is planning routine flights into space.
The private space company Virgin Galactic has sent tourists into space for the first time. Among them was a mother-daughter team who had won their tickets in a lottery.
In addition to 46-year-old Keisha Schahaff and her 18-year-old daughter Anastasia Mayers, Brit Jon Goodwin was also on board. The 80-year-old bought his plane ticket for $200,000 seven years ago. The former Olympian was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a few years ago. With his journey he wants to give inspiration to other Parkinson’s sufferers: “I hope it shows that such obstacles can also be the beginning of new adventures,” he said.
They were accompanied by two astronauts and one astronaut from Virgin Galactic.
Passengers are weightless for a few moments
The “VSS Unity” flew above the earth at an altitude of 88 kilometers. The space tourists could see the curvature of the earth and even briefly experienced weightlessness. The spacecraft was launched from a special station in the US state of New Mexico using a carrier aircraft. After about 1.5 hours, the “VSS Unity” landed there again.
It is Virgin Galactic’s second commercial flight: almost two years ago, founder Richard Branson set out on a test flight. The British billionaire founded the private space company in 2004. Then, in 2021, the US government gave permission to send passengers on space trips.
The plane took off and landed in the US state of New Mexico.
space tourism increases
Branson wants to enable paying passengers to fly into space on a regular basis, at best monthly. However, he is not alone in this: direct competitors are Tesla boss Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. With his company Blue Origin, he has already sent 31 people into space.
With information from Claudia Sarre, ARD Washington