Ashley Strickland, CNN
Sat, August 12, 2023
Space tourists (from left) Jon Goodwin, Anastatia Mayers and her mother, Keisha Schahaff, pose for photos ahead of their Thursday flight.
- Andres Leighton/AP
The dreams we have as children often stick with us for the rest of our lives.
And if your dream involved venturing to the stars, space tourism has opened up another avenue for those who didn’t study to become astronauts — albeit at a hefty price.
Those who have been willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a ticket to ride to the edge of space have also endured a lengthy wait, and for most of them it’s not over yet.
Billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and it built up a backlog of 800 paying passengers. After years of missed deadlines, the company finally started delivering on its long-promised journeys with an inaugural commercial launch in June funded by the Italian air force.
Now, three more space travelers have a cosmic tale to tell.
Defying gravity
Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane carried its first group of tourists on a brief trip Thursday.
The lucky trio included the first Olympian and mother-daughter duo to travel to space.
Entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers were the first space travelers from Antigua. They were joined by Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games and became the second person with Parkinson’s disease to travel to space.
Mayers said she was “starstruck” by the experience of glimpsing Earth, and Goodwin described the hour-long journey as “a completely surreal experience.”
Separately, Russia and India are in a lunar space race to see which of their respective uncrewed spacecraft will land on the moon first in a couple of weeks.
The dreams we have as children often stick with us for the rest of our lives.
And if your dream involved venturing to the stars, space tourism has opened up another avenue for those who didn’t study to become astronauts — albeit at a hefty price.
Those who have been willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a ticket to ride to the edge of space have also endured a lengthy wait, and for most of them it’s not over yet.
Billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and it built up a backlog of 800 paying passengers. After years of missed deadlines, the company finally started delivering on its long-promised journeys with an inaugural commercial launch in June funded by the Italian air force.
Now, three more space travelers have a cosmic tale to tell.
Defying gravity
Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane carried its first group of tourists on a brief trip Thursday.
The lucky trio included the first Olympian and mother-daughter duo to travel to space.
Entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers were the first space travelers from Antigua. They were joined by Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games and became the second person with Parkinson’s disease to travel to space.
Mayers said she was “starstruck” by the experience of glimpsing Earth, and Goodwin described the hour-long journey as “a completely surreal experience.”
Separately, Russia and India are in a lunar space race to see which of their respective uncrewed spacecraft will land on the moon first in a couple of weeks.
Virgin Galactic's first space tourists finally soar, an Olympian and a mother-daughter duo
SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and MARCIA DUNN
Updated Thu, August 10, 2023
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.
The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after a brief flight that gave passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
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.
“That was by far the most awesome thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing in the 1972 Olympics.
Goodwin, 80, 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.”
Ticket prices were $200,000 when Goodwin signed up. The cost is now $450,000.
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. They high-fived and pumped their fists as the spaceport crowd cheered their return.
"A childhood dream has come true,” said Schahaff, who took pink Antiguan sand up with her. Added her daughter: “I have no words. The only thought I had the whole time was ‘Wow!’ ”
With the company's astronaut trainer and one of the two pilots, it marked the first time women outnumbered men on a spaceflight, four to two.
Cheers erupted from families and friends watching below when the craft’s rocket motor fired after it was released from the twin-fuselage aircraft that had carried it aloft. The rocket ship’s portion of the flight lasted about 15 minutes and it reached 55 miles (88 kilometers) high.
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 soared in June on the first commercial flight. About 800 people are currently on Virgin Galactic’s waiting list, according to the company.
In contrast to Virgin Galactic’s plane-launched rocket ship, the capsules used by SpaceX and Blue Origin are fully automated and parachute back down.
Like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin aims for the fringes of space, quick ups-and-downs from West Texas. Blue Origin has launched 31 people so far, but flights are on hold following a rocket crash last fall. The capsule, carrying experiments but no passengers, landed intact.
SpaceX, is the only private company flying customers all the way to orbit, charging a much heftier price, too: tens of millions of dollars per seat. It’s already flown three private crews. NASA is its biggest customer, relying on SpaceX to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. since 2020.
People have been taking on adventure travel for decades, the risks underscored by the recent implosion of the Titan submersible that killed five passengers on their way down to view the Titanic wreckage. Virgin Galactic suffered its own casualty in 2014 when its rocket plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one pilot. Yet space tourists are still lining up, ever since the first one rocketed into orbit in 2001 with the Russians.
Branson, who lives in the British Virgin Islands, watched Thursday's flight from a party in Antigua. He was joined by the country's prime minister, as well as Schahaff's mother and other relatives.
"Welcome to the club,” he told the new spacefliers via X, formerly Twitter.
Several months ago, Branson held a virtual lottery to establish a pecking order for the company's first 50 customers — dubbed the Founding Astronauts. Virgin Galactic said the group agreed Goodwin would go first, given his age and his Parkinson’s.
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This story has been updated to correct introductory price to $200,000, not $250,000.
___
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and MARCIA DUNN
Updated Thu, August 10, 2023
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.
The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after a brief flight that gave passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
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.
“That was by far the most awesome thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing in the 1972 Olympics.
Goodwin, 80, 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.”
Ticket prices were $200,000 when Goodwin signed up. The cost is now $450,000.
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. They high-fived and pumped their fists as the spaceport crowd cheered their return.
"A childhood dream has come true,” said Schahaff, who took pink Antiguan sand up with her. Added her daughter: “I have no words. The only thought I had the whole time was ‘Wow!’ ”
With the company's astronaut trainer and one of the two pilots, it marked the first time women outnumbered men on a spaceflight, four to two.
Cheers erupted from families and friends watching below when the craft’s rocket motor fired after it was released from the twin-fuselage aircraft that had carried it aloft. The rocket ship’s portion of the flight lasted about 15 minutes and it reached 55 miles (88 kilometers) high.
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 soared in June on the first commercial flight. About 800 people are currently on Virgin Galactic’s waiting list, according to the company.
In contrast to Virgin Galactic’s plane-launched rocket ship, the capsules used by SpaceX and Blue Origin are fully automated and parachute back down.
Like Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin aims for the fringes of space, quick ups-and-downs from West Texas. Blue Origin has launched 31 people so far, but flights are on hold following a rocket crash last fall. The capsule, carrying experiments but no passengers, landed intact.
SpaceX, is the only private company flying customers all the way to orbit, charging a much heftier price, too: tens of millions of dollars per seat. It’s already flown three private crews. NASA is its biggest customer, relying on SpaceX to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. since 2020.
People have been taking on adventure travel for decades, the risks underscored by the recent implosion of the Titan submersible that killed five passengers on their way down to view the Titanic wreckage. Virgin Galactic suffered its own casualty in 2014 when its rocket plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one pilot. Yet space tourists are still lining up, ever since the first one rocketed into orbit in 2001 with the Russians.
Branson, who lives in the British Virgin Islands, watched Thursday's flight from a party in Antigua. He was joined by the country's prime minister, as well as Schahaff's mother and other relatives.
"Welcome to the club,” he told the new spacefliers via X, formerly Twitter.
Several months ago, Branson held a virtual lottery to establish a pecking order for the company's first 50 customers — dubbed the Founding Astronauts. Virgin Galactic said the group agreed Goodwin would go first, given his age and his Parkinson’s.
___
This story has been updated to correct introductory price to $200,000, not $250,000.
___
Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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