A mother and daughter from Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean took off Thursday from the “Virgin Galactic” spaceport in New Mexico and participated in a short flight into space after winning a lottery organized by the company.
The mother, Keisha Schahaff, who is married to an Israeli husband, and her 18-year-old daughter, Ana Mayers, wore the flags of Scotland and Israel on their suits.
The flight was short and lasted only a few minutes, and when the rocket plane reached an altitude of 88 km, the flight participants including Schahaff and Mayers released their seat belts and began to float in the air.
Virgin Galactic has launched its first space tourism mission https://t.co/DTHIR1jpfO pic.twitter.com/bxx2FK7Q1C
— CNN (@CNN) August 10, 2023
After a few minutes, the passengers returned to their seats and the plane landed safely at the airport in New Mexico, from which it had taken off.
Space becoming more accessible
“When I was two years old, I just looked up at the sky, thinking, ‘How can I get there?’ But being from the Caribbean, I didn’t see how such a thing would be possible,” said Schahaff. “The fact that I’m here, the first to travel to space from Antigua, shows that space is really becoming more accessible.”
VMS Eve, operated by Virgin Galactic, returns after the company’s first commercial flight to the edge of space, at the Spaceport America facility, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, U.S., June 29, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ)“Virgin Galactic”, the space tourism company founded by the British billionaire Richard Branson, launched its first space flight, after many promises.
Besides Keisha and her daughter, former Olympic athlete Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in 1972 and became the second person with Parkinson’s disease to fly into space, also participated in the flight.
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