A Virgin Galactic rocket took its passengers to the edge of space before gliding back to the runway at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert on Thursday. The rocket ship portion of the flight began with loud cheers from the families and friends of the passengers watching and lasted about 15 minutes, reaching an elevation of 56 miles (88 kilometres).
Among the passengers on the Virgin Galactic flight were 80-year-old former British Olympian Jon Goodwin and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.
Goodwin bought his ticket in 2005 for $200,000, but didn’t think he’d be able to make it after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The former athlete said he hoped his spaceflight would send a message to people suffering from Parkinson’s and other diseases that “it doesn’t stop you doing things”.
“That was by far the most awesome thing I’ve ever done in my life,” the 1972 Olympic contender said after his maiden voyage on Virgin Galatic flight.
Meanwhile, the other passengers, 46-year-old health coach from Antigua Keisha Schahaff and her 18-year-old daughter Anastatia Mayers, had won their seats in a charity draw.
Schahaff, who took pink sand aboard the Virgin Galactic flight on Thursday, said: “A childhood dream has come true.”
Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 with the promise of flying passengers into space from 2007. The company’s plans faced delays, and in 2014 a Virgin Galactic spacecraft crashed during a test flight, prompting the company to suspend ticket sales. However, in 2018, the company reached space for the first time and later in 2021, founder Richard Branson flew into space on a Virgin Galactic flight. Since Branson’s flight, the company had suspended all space missions for almost two years to upgrade its fleet of vehicles, and only reopened in 2022 with a hefty ticket price of $4,50,000.
(With inputs from AP, Bloomberg)
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Updated: 11 Aug 2023, 07:37 AM IST