Mother and daughter will travel to space with Virgin Galactic – 07/17/2023 – Science
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A woman from Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean country, and her daughter, as well as an 80-year-old man, will travel into space with Virgin Galactic on August 10.
The mission, named Galactic 02, will be the second commercial flight by the American company founded by billionaire Richard Branson. Including test flights, this will be the seventh time the spacecraft has traveled to space.
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18, won tickets in a raffle after her mother attended a fundraiser organized by Virgin Galactic. The amount donated was not revealed, but donations started at 10 dollars.
It was Branson himself who communicated the news to Schahaff, when he visited her home and handed her an astronaut suit.
“Since I was a child, space has always fascinated me,” she told AFP. “This is a great opportunity to feel alive.”
The third passenger, 80-year-old Jon Goodwin, participated in the 1972 Olympic Games and will be the second person with Parkinson’s disease to go into space. He will not be the oldest, a record beaten by William Shatner at 90.
Beth Moses, an employee of Virgin Galactic, and two pilots will also travel aboard the ship.
The flight lasts around an hour and a half, but passengers only spend a few minutes in space. A plane takes off first from a runway in New Mexico and at about 15 km high releases the craft, which looks like a large private jet.
Then, the spacecraft turns on the engine and accelerates vertically until reaching an altitude of more than 80 km, the limit of space according to the American army. Finally, glide down.
Fewer than 700 people worldwide have been in space, according to the company, which promised one space flight per month. Around 800 customers bought their tickets, for prices ranging from US$ 200,000 to US$ 450,000 (R$ 963,760 to R$ 2,168,460, at current prices).
Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin, which also offers short suborbital flights.
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