How prize draw win sent mother and teenage daughter to the edge of space in Virgin Galactic flight
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18, joined British Olympian Jon Goodwin for the incredible rocket ride to space, Andy Gregory reports
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Your support makes all the difference.Travelling at three times the speed of sound, Virgin Galactic’s inaugural space tourists have been granted a view of planet Earth after a journey shorter than a cross-London commute.
Having become the company’s first paying customer in 2005, British Olympian Jon Goodwin finally took his $250,000 seat on Thursday, now at the age of 80 and living with Parkinson’s.
Sitting – and, at points, floating – alongside him were Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, who have become both the first mother-daughter duo and first female African-Caribbeans to visit space. But their once-in-a-lifetime trip was considerably cheaper than Jon’s, having won their tickets in a competition.
The 46-year-old health coach “randomly” entered the prize, along with 165,000 people, draw after spotting an advert while travelling from Antigua to London to sort a visa for her daughter.
Anastatia, an 18 year-old physics student at Aberdeen University, told her mother she had “finally lost it” when she broke the news of their forthcoming voyage into space.
Ms Mayers said there was no one else she would choose to experience the “mindblowing” event with except her mother, adding: “I don’t think there’s anything else that could be more bonding than this. It is so comforting to know she’s there with me.”
Fast forward to Thursday 10 August and the unbelievable opportunity became a reality.
The mothership VMS Eve took off from New Mexico at around 1530 BST, and after reaching an altitude of around 44,500ft, just above the range of most commercial aircrafts, VSS Unity was released at around 1617 BST – rapidly accelerating from around 350mph to a speed topping 2,000mph.
As the plane approached an altitude of 200,000ft, the passengers were given the all-clear to unbuckle and experience zero-gravity, at which point they immediately reached for the plane’s 17 windows – as it swiftly flipped upside down to grant them a better view of Earth.
Gripping to the edges of the windows as their bodies floated behind them, the passengers could be seen glued wide-eyed to the scene before them, in what appeared to be a state of significant awe.
After around five minutes, they returned to their seats and strapped themselves back in ahead of the return journey, having reached a peak altitude of 290,422ft, or 85.5km (55 miles) from the Earth’s surface – a height that has proved somewhat controversial.
While it meets Nasa’s definition of entering space, with the US agency defining that frontier as starting at 80.4km (50 miles) above sea level, the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space set by the Federation Aeronatique Internationale, known as the Karman line, sits 99.8km (62 miles) from Earth.
As Virgin Galactic competitor Blue Origin has pointed out, the latter is what “96 per cent of the world's population” recognises as the edge of outer space.
Nevertheless, the plane was met by rapturous applause from those watching on from Virgin Galactic as it touched down in New Mexico just 63 minutes after takeoff, with its passengers seen smiling and nodding.
At a press conference several hours later, the three passengers spoke with reverence about their experience, with Ms Schahaff saying: “I’m still up there. I’m not here yet.”
Her daughter added: “I was shocked at the things that you feel. You are so much more connected to everything than you would expect to be. You felt like a part of the team, part of the ship, part of the universe, part of Earth.”
Describing the trip he waited 18 years for as having “exceeded my wildest dreams”, Mr Goodwin said: “It was far more dramatic than I imagined it would be”, expressing his shock at “the pure acceleration” of reaching three times the speed of sound in fewer than nine seconds.
But “the most impressive thing was looking at earth from space”, he said, adding: “Just the pure clarity, it was very moving.
“Without a doubt, the most exciting day of my life.”
If all goes to plan, Sir Richard Branson’s company will begin offering monthly trips to customers on its winged space plane, joining Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.
Thursday’s history-making trip will raise funds for Space for Humanity, a non-profit group that seeks to send ordinary citizens into space to give them a “grander perspective” on the challenges facing Earth.
Mr Goodwin, described being the second person with Parkinson’s to enter space as “completely magical”, adding: “I hope this inspires all others facing adversity and shows them that challenges don't have to inhibit or stop them from pursuing their dreams.”
Describing space as “like liberation”, Ms Schahaff added: “When I was two years old, just looking up to the skies, I thought, ‘How can I get there?’ But, being from the Caribbean, I didn’t see how something like this would be possible.
“The fact that I am here, the first to travel to space from Antigua, shows that space really is becoming more accessible.”
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