NEW MEXICO – A mother, her 18-year-old daughter and a former Olympian became the first group of tourists to travel to the edge of space on a Virgin Galactic rocket Thursday, after a job that took decades of investment and preparation.
The craft landed safely in the New Mexico desert after flying for about 20 minutes and reaching weightlessness, billionaire Richard Branson’s company reported.
“Welcome back to Earth, #Galactic02! Our pilots, crew, and spacecraft have safely landed at Spaceport America, New Mexico,” the private company confirmed. on social network X (formerly known as Twitter).
The takeoff of the reusable VSS Unity spacecraft was delayed by more than an hour, although it was finally able to take place at 11:20 am local time from Spaceport America, in New Mexico.
The Branson-based company will begin offering monthly trips to customers on its winged space plane, joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.
The flight departed Thursday morning from Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s base in southern New Mexico and was the British billionaire’s company’s seventh trip into space since 2018.
The flight came three years after Branson beat out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his rocket company, Blue Origin, to become the first billionaire to fly into space aboard his own spacecraft.
VSS Unity did not reach Earth orbit, but its trajectory provided several minutes of weightlessness for passengers, at an altitude high enough to see the curvature of the Earth against the blackness of space, according to the specialized media. Space.com.
Space Perspective is offering a luxury trip into space in a hot air balloon for $125,000 per passenger. The first trip is scheduled for the end of 2024. For more information, visit spaceperspective.com. To see more from Telemundo, visit
In the first leg of the flight, the aircraft lifted off from the double fuselage with its rocket attached below. The plane then separated from the mother ship at an altitude of about 8.5 miles and fired up its engine, reaching about three times the speed of sound, as it pierced the edge of space.
According to a company statement, Galactic 02 is Virgin Galactic’s seventh spaceflight, its second commercial spaceflight and its first with space tourists.
WHO WERE THE PASSENGERS ON BOARD
Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old former Olympian — he competed in canoeing at the 1972 Olympics — was among the first to buy a ticket in 2005, when a ticket cost $200,000 instead of $450,000 today. Goodwin has Parkinson’s and wants to be an inspiration to others.
they accompanied him Keisha Schahaff, 46, a health specialist from Antigua and Barbados, and her daughter, Anastatia Mayers18 years old, university student.
Schahaff and her daughter became the first Caribbean astronauts and the first mother-daughter duo to travel to space. She was one of the winners of the raffle for the non-profit organization Space for Humanity.
Two pilots and the company’s astronaut trainer also traveled on board the ship.
