Virgin Galactic is finally sending its first tourists to space from Spaceport America

Richard Branson, a British billionaire who founded the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, has finally launched its first astronauts to the edge of space, marking a significant step toward delivering on decades' worth of promises.

Outlook International Desk

Updated on: 10 August 2023 6:24 pm

First Virgin Galactic Space Tourists

Virgin Galactic is launching its first space travelers, including a former British Olympian who purchased his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean.
The flight window for a journey to the edge of space opens Thursday morning at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. If all goes well, Richard Branson's company will start selling monthly journeys on its winged space plane to consumers, joining Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX in the space tourism market.
Jon Goodwin, a Virgin Galactic traveler who was among the first to purchase a ticket in 2005, expressed confidence that he would eventually complete the trip. The Olympic canoeist from 1972, who is 80 years old and has Parkinson's disease, hopes to motivate others by sharing his story. In a statement, he continued, "I hope it shows them that these problems may be the start rather than the conclusion of new adventures.”
When Goodwin signed up, ticket costs were $200,000 each. The price has risen to $450,000. He will be joined by sweepstakes winner Keisha Schahaff, 46, an Antigua health coach, and her daughter, Anastatia Mayers, 18, a student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Two pilots and the company's astronaut trainer are aboard the plane-launched craft, which glides to a space shuttle-like landing.
It will be Virgin Galactic's seventh space flight since 2018 and the first with a ticket holder. In June, Italian military and government researchers took the first commercial flight. According to the corporation, there are currently 800 people on the Virgin Galactic waiting list.
The rocket ship needs two pilots in the cockpit and is launched from an airplane's belly rather than the ground. When the mothership reaches about 50,000 feet (10 miles or 15 kilometers), the space plane is launched and ignites its rocket motor to reach a height of a little over 50 miles (80 kilometers). Passengers can unbuckle their seats and float around the cabin for a few minutes, taking in the panoramic view of Earth, before the space plane glides back home and settles on a runway.