Virgin Galactic sent tourists into space for the first time (video)

Photo: Spaceplane VSS Unity

< p>The company Virgin Galactic launched its first flight vehicle VSS Unity with tourists to the limits of space, at a height of more than 80 km above sea level, reports ABC News.

The passengers of the first tourist suborbital flight became an 80-year-old Briton John Goodwin – participant of the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 in the canoe rowing competition, as well as natives of Antigua and Barbuda – 40-year-old Keisha Shahaff and her 18-year-old daughter Anastasia Myers.

The flight, named Galactic 02, was the second commercial flight organized by the company. The passengers of the first paid flight were a group of Italian military researchers, the flight was paid for by the Italian Air Force. The Aug. 10 flight is Virgin Galactic's first passenger flight.

Keisha Shahaff, a fitness trainer, won a ticket to space in a raffle organized by the non-profit organization Space for Humanity. Her daughter Anastasia Myers is studying philosophy and physics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

John Goodwin became the first civilian who bought a ticket for a commercial flight to space. In 2014, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He became the second person with this disease who visited in space. The first was the American astronaut Richard Clifford.

The crew included three Virgin Galactic employees – the company's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, commander CJ Starkow and pilot Kelly Latimer.

The launch took place from the spaceport “America”. in the state of New Mexico on the morning of August 10. At an altitude of about 15 km, the spacecraft detached from the WK2 booster aircraft, after which it rose to an altitude of 80 km, spent some time in weightlessness and began to descend.

BREAKING: Virgin Galactic launches first mission carrying paying customers to space, weeks after the company's first flight in June. https://t.co/0qsj5TxhL9 pic.twitter.com/SQ55xggwl1

— ABC News (@ABC) August 10, 2023

About an hour and a half after the start of the flight, the cosmonaut landed safely.

The first company to organize flights to the frontier of space was Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin . The company's rockets sent 31 passengers to an altitude of more than 100 km.

Commercial flights were suspended after an accident during the launch of an unmanned capsule with equipment in September 2022.

Prepared by: Serhiy Daga< /p>