[imagesource:virgingalactic]

A former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago, and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean rocketed to the edge of space on board Virgin Galactic yesterday.

The ‘space plane’ glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert after giving its passengers a few minutes of zero gravity.

This first private customer flight had been delayed for years; its success means Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic can now start offering monthly rides, joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the space tourism business.

Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing in the 1972 Olympics, was among the first to buy a Virgin Galactic ticket in 2005 and feared, after later being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, that he’d be out of luck.

Since then he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and cycled back down, and said he hopes his spaceflight shows others with Parkinson’s and other illnesses that ”it doesn’t stop you doing things.” Right on, Goodwin.

He was joined on the flight by sweepstakes winner Keisha Schahaff, 46, a health coach from Antigua, and her daughter, Anastatia Mayers, 18, a student at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen. This then also marks the first time women outnumbered men on a spaceflight, four to two.

Ticket prices were $200,000 (R3.7 million) when Goodwin signed up. The cost is now $450,000 (R7.9 million).

It was Virgin Galactic’s seventh trip to space since 2018, but the first with a ticket-holder. Branson, the company’s founder, hopped on board for the first full-size crew ride in 2021. Italian military and government researchers jetted off in June on the first commercial flight.

About 800 people are currently on Virgin Galactic’s waiting list, according to the company. Check out the flight below:

No matter how many times we see folks hopping to the edge of space these days, we still have to marvel at what humans can achieve if we put our minds to it.

[source:ap]