THE first space tourists transported by Virgin Galactic reached space yesterday, announced the company founded by the billionaire Richard Bransonalso patron of Virgin Atlantic.
The three passengers – Jon Goodwin, 80, Keisha Schahaff, 46, and his daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18 – spent a few minutes in space, from where they could admire the curvature of the Earth and briefly float in weightlessness, according to the Virgin Galactic video broadcast. They were accompanied in the VSS Unity ship by a Virgin Galactic employee responsible for supervising them, and two pilots.
This mission, named Galactic 02, is the second commercial flight of Virgin Galactic, after a first carried out at the end of June. This one had transported senior Italian Air Force officers who had carried out several experiments on board, and not civilians making the trip purely for pleasure.
Fewer than 700 people have flown into space so far, according to Virgin Galactic, which now promises one spaceflight a month. About 800 customers bought their ticket for a price initially between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars per passenger, which was raised to 450,000 dollars after the Covid pandemic.
