Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first private tourist mission to space on Thursday, carrying three passengers and three crewmembers.
The American aerospace company owned by Richard Branson is headquartered in California and maintains an operating base in New Mexico.
Thursday’s mission, known as Galactic 02, was the company’s second commercial spaceflight, The Guardian reported.
The passengers aboard the flight were 80-year-old former British Olympian Jon Goodwin, health and fitness coach Keisha Schahaff, and her 18-year-old daughter, Anastatia Mayers.
Schahaff scored a seat on the rocket-powered commercial space plane by winning a fundraising competition put on by Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization that seeks to expand “access to space for all of humanity.” She and Mayers, who both live in Antigua, were the first mother-daughter pair to travel to space.
Also on board were the mission’s commander, C.J. Sturckow, pilot Kelly Latimer, and Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor.
Virgin Galactic’s carrier plane — VMS Eve — lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico shortly after 10 a.m. CT, carrying the VSS Unity space plane with its passengers and crew to an altitude of almost 50,000 feet.
At about 10:28 a.m., VSS Unity disengaged from the carrier plane and fired its rocket motor, launching the space plane into suborbital space and reaching a maximum speed of about Mach 2.8.
Upon reaching an altitude of 262,000 feet — just over 49 miles above Earth’s surface — the space tourists and crew were allowed to move about the cabin and experience weightlessness while viewing the planet from a unique perspective through the windows of the space plane.
Commentators on the live stream of the launch characterized the mission as a “flight for the history books.”
As the crew began its descent, Rachel Lyons, executive director of Space for Humanity, said that it was “a dream come true” to see the two women tourists get to visit space.
“When people go to space and they look back down on our planet as this interconnected, fragile, beautiful, finite planet, it changes a person’s perspective forever,” said Lyons.
“We are really passionate about giving that perspective to as many people as possible by sending people who can be representatives for different areas and nations and places that haven’t necessarily had exposure to this,” said Lyons.
At 10:39 a.m., just over 10 minutes after disengaging from the carrier plane, VSS Unity safely landed back at Spaceport America, where its journey began.
Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said during the live stream that the launch was one of the most significant events for the country and the rest of the Caribbean.
“This is certainly a major achievement and an achievement that will help to inspire greater ambitions of the Antigua Barbudan people,” said Browne. “We are very proud of the courage and certainly the resilience of Keisha and her daughter, and we are just very happy.”
