Virgin Galactic's First Tourist Space Flight Takes Off With Mother-Daughter Pair on Board
Virgin Galactic’s first tourist space flight took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Thursday, August 10, the company confirmed.
The vessel SpaceShipTwo was carrying eight passengers, including four pilots, one astronaut trainer, and three tourists, according to the company.
Two of the passengers were Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Meyers, a mother and daughter from Antigua who won tickets for the space flight through a fundraising draw, the company said. The third tourist on board was 80-year-old British Olympian Jon Goodwin.
The spacecraft and passengers safely landed back in New Mexico about an hour after takeoff, Virgin Galactic said.
This footage was streamed live during the flight and shows the crew of the Galactic-02 mission crossing the atmosphere and entering outer space. Credit: Virgin Galactic via Storyful
Video Transcript
- Five, three, two, one, release, release, release. Ignition, good control. There's Mach One. The pilots have started trimming for that turn towards space. Trim is now set.
There is Max Q, that's the point of maximum pressure exerted on the vehicle by the atmosphere. Those on board are experiencing about three Gs right now and traveling over 1,000 miles an hour.
- That's incredible. I can imagine they're having quite a great time.
- We're at Mach two. We're in the vertical headed toward space.
- This is the part where they're seeing Earth move away and seeing space come into view and seeing that they're going to space and just it is an incredible feeling.
- So we've got about Mach 2.8, Mach three approximately and rocket motor cut off.
- Amazing. The crowds here are just absolutely going wild. I can't imagine what's happening in Antigua with them cheering them on. Incredible. Go, Keisha. Go, Ana. Go, John.
- So everybody on board has been cleared to unstrap and enjoy that zero-g experience. The pilots have unlocked the feather that's the preparation so that they can raise the feather here momentarily. They're engaging the RCS, as well.
- The feather is now starting to move on its way up. Everyone's up out of their seats just--
- Oh, it's incredible. They're all-- I know. It's amazing. They're all going to the window and taking in this just absolutely incredible view of Earth, the planet where all of their experiences are held, everything they've ever known is--
- Wonderful.
-- down below.
- The feather is all the way up. We have a predicted Apigee of about 289,000ft.
That is amazing. Our crew looks like they're having an absolutely incredible time, and they are officially astronauts. Welcome to space. Congratulations to John, to Keisha, to Anna on becoming astronauts today. And a special congratulations to our unity pilot Kelly for her first spaceflight. And welcome back to space CJ and Beth.
- And the vehicle is oriented in that backflip or that upside down maneuver from our perspective. And you can see them just enjoying that view of the Earth below.
- Man, it's incredible. I can see that they just can't take their eyes away. And it's hard for us to describe, we can obviously see they're having just an incredible time in space taking in the views. I mean, it's designed that anyone can do it, as we've seen today. And the views are going to be amazing on the way down too.
- So when we talk about space travel, right.
