Blue Origin’s third manned flight is scheduled for early December.
Washington:
The company said Wednesday a health coach from the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda has won two tickets worth nearly $1 million to be one of Virgin’s first space tourists. Galactic.
Keisha Schahaff, 44, said she wanted to make a flight into Earth orbit with her 17-year-old daughter, a science student living in the UK who dreams of one day working for NASA.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson surprised Schahaff with the news at her home in Antigua and Barbuda in early November.
“I just thought I was doing a zoomed-in interview,” she told AFP.
“When I saw Richard Branson walk in, I started screaming! I couldn’t believe it.”
“I’ve always been interested in space as a little girl,” she added. “This is a great opportunity for me to feel alive and take on the greatest adventure ever.”
Schahaff won the prize after participating in a fundraising raffle organized by Virgin Galactic on the Omaze platform, raising $1.7 million.
The money will be donated to the NGO Space for Humanity, which works to reach out to more space.
The amount she donated was not made public, but the entry starts with a minimum donation of $10.
Schahaff, a health and energy coach who works specifically with women, decided to claim the award after seeing an ad on a Virgin Atlantic flight.
“I just filled out the application, did what was asked … without realizing that I would actually get a response to it,” she said.
“I’m highly encouraged to inspire others to live their dreams too.”
Virgin Galactic says the ride drew nearly 165,000 participants over eight weeks.
‘Equal access to space’
Wednesday’s announcement is intended to show that space travel is opening up opportunities for many, although the price tag remains out of reach for most.
“Being able to provide people of all ages and backgrounds with equal access to space, and the opportunity to lead and inspire others on Earth, is something Virgin,” said Branson. Galactic has been aiming for the past two decades.”
The British fighter flew on his company’s test mission into space in July, beating Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos by just a few days in their space billionaire race.
Schahaff will be one of Virgin Galactic’s first space tourists, but her place in the row has yet to be determined, a company spokesperson said.
Virgin Galactic has pre-sold about 700 space tickets: 600 tickets from 2005 to 2014 for up to $250,000 each, and another 100 since August, when they were resold for $450,000.
Their goal is to sell a total of 1,000 units before launching commercial flights, the first of which will take place at the end of 2022.
The proposed ride lasts only a few minutes in zero gravity. A giant transport plane takes off from a traditional runway carrying a spacecraft that looks like a large private jet and then drops it at high altitude.
The space plane will then ignite its own rocket engine until it exceeds 50 miles (80 km) at altitude – the limit of space, according to the US military – before returning to the runway. .
Amazon founder Bezos’ company Blue Origin is also offering suborbital flights, but on a rocket that takes off from a more traditional vertical position.
Blue Origin’s third manned flight is scheduled for early December.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
