A mom and daughter from the Caribbean are about to make historical past after successful Virgin Galactic’s contest to fly to area.
Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter, Anastasia Mayers, are set to jet on the area exploration firm’s Galactic 02 mission, Virgin Galactic’s second industrial area mission on Thursday, per a launch by Virgin Galactic.
The 2 would be the first mom and daughter to journey to area collectively, with Mayers being the second-youngest particular person to ever fly out of orbit. The duo will even make historical past because the first-ever astronauts from the Caribbean.
The pair, who started hands-on coaching in New Mexico this weekend, had an uncommon method of ending up on the industrial flight — they gained a contest by means of Omaze, which raised over $1.7 million in grants for the nonprofit, House for Humanity, which goals to “increase entry to area for all of humanity.”
Schahaff randomly entered to contest whereas on a Virgin flight from Antigua to London two years in the past and was shocked to seek out Richard Branson swarming her yard final November, with a Virgin crew telling her that she gained the competition.
“As I grew older, my curiosity in area exploration solely intensified, and I aspired to turn out to be an astronaut. Nonetheless, the truth of not having any avenues in my nation or the Caribbean to pursue this dream left me feeling not sure,” Schahaff advised Each day Mail of her lifelong fascination with area. “Having the ability to open doorways for others to comply with their desires of changing into astronauts is actually superb and fills my coronary heart with delight and gratitude.”
The pair might be joined by former British Olympian Jon Goodwin, who will turn out to be the second particular person ever to fly to area with Parkinson’s Illness.
Schahaff and Mayers’ tickets are valued at a whopping $900,000.
Mayers, who’s at present a sophomore on the College of Aberdeen in Scotland, advised her college paper in an interview that she was shocked when her mom advised her the information, and that she had solely begun telling her closest pals in regards to the mission just lately.
“I have been doing my finest to mentally put together for it, attempting to know that is really taking place. I needed to create some objectives and determine the issues I need to get out of this. I am simply attempting to make it a significant and lasting expertise,” Mayers mentioned. ” I need to have the ability to discover area and share that with the remainder of society. I need to have the ability to make this info and this expertise very accessible for different folks because it now’s for myself.”
Virgin Galactic’s first-ever area tourism flight, Galactic 01, came about on June 29. It was a scientific analysis mission flying three crew members from the Italian Air Drive and the Nationwide Analysis Council of Italy, per the corporate.
The VSS Unity is about to take off on the Galactic 02 mission round 11 a.m. EST from Virgin Galactic’s launch website in New Mexico and is estimated to final round 90 minutes. The flight might be live-streamed on Virgin’s web site.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Virgin Galactic was down almost 50% in a one-year interval.