Departure on Virgin Galactis’ second commercial flight is scheduled for Thursday. The lucky ones are Keisha Schahaff and her 18-year-old university student’s daughter.
A Virgin Galactic space voyage
TiscaliNews
Mother and daughter will travel to space together on Thursday after winning a seat on Virgin Galactis’ second commercial flight in a prize draw. The lucky ones, reports the BBC, are Anastatia Mayersan 18-year-old student at the University of Aberdeen and her mother Keisha Schahaffwho with their ‘Space Oddity’ will burn various firsts: they are the first mother and daughter to fly together in spacebut also the first space tourists originally from the Caribbean, while Anastatia will be the second youngest person ever to go into space.
Mom Keisha was traveling on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Antigua to London, where she was going to sort out her daughter’s visa issues, when an announcement of the onboard competition suddenly appeared and she decided to enter: she won after a selection from 20 finalists, then reduced to a shortlist of 5.
The mission, dubbed ‘Galactic 02’, is the second commercial spaceflight conducted by the American space company, and the first with paying customers on board. The advertised price for a ride on the rocket plane was $450,000 (about €350,000) which was given to the mother and daughter. The mission follows ‘Galactic 01’ which took place in June, reaching an altitude of 279,000 feet (about 85km).