Something promised, something due: the American company Virgin Galactic took its first tourists into space on Thursday. The three passengers — Jon Goodwin, 80, Keisha Schahaff, 46, and his daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18 — spent a few minutes in space, where they were able to admire the curvature of the Earth and briefly float in weightlessness, according to the company’s video broadcast. They were accompanied in the VSS Unity ship by a Virgin Galactic employee responsible for supervising them, and two pilots.
This mission, named Galactic 02, is the company’s second commercial flight, after a first at the end of June. This one had transported senior Italian Air Force officers who had carried out several experiments on board, and not civilians making the trip purely for pleasure. Before that, the company had carried out several test flights, including one with Richard Branson himself, in July 2021. In total, Thursday is the seventh time that the spacecraft has gone into space.
A huge carrier plane first took off from a conventional runway in New Mexico. After a period of ascension, he jettisoned the ship, which looks like a large private jet. It then turned on its engine and accelerated vertically until it exceeded 80 km in altitude, the limit marking the beginning of space according to the American army. The spacecraft reached an altitude of 88 km at its peak, a commentator announced during the live video. It then quickly began its descent while gliding, before landing on the same runway.
800 customers on the waiting list
Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers are both from Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, and won their ticket by participating in a fundraiser organized by Virgin Galactic. The happy 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. He was back in Antigua and Barbuda on Thursday to watch the flight alongside his family, he said on social media, posting a photo showing him alongside Keisha Schahaff’s mother.
The third passenger, Briton 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: this record is held by William Shatner, who was 90 during his journey. Fewer than 700 people have flown into space so far, according to Virgin Galactic, which now promises one spaceflight a month. About 800 customers bought their ticket for a price initially between $200,000 and $250,000 per passenger, which was later raised to $450,000.
Virgin Galactic’s space program has been years behind schedule, in part due to an accident in 2014 that killed a pilot.
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights, and has already sent 31 people into space. But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, its rocket has been grounded. Blue Origin promised in March to resume “Soon” his space flights.