Virgin Galactic has taken its first tourists to the edge of space, with an 80-year-old British ex-Olympian saying the trip “exceeded my wildest dreams”.
On board the VSS Unity were Jon Goodwin, from Newcastle, who had competed in canoeing at the 1972 Games in Munich, Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter Anastatia Mayers, a University of Aberdeen student.
The crew took the passengers about 55 miles (88km) above Earth where they experienced zero gravity during the flight which lasted just over an hour.
Speaking later about the trip, Mr Goodwin said it was a “completely surreal experience” and “the most exciting day of my life”.
He said: “The most impressive thing was looking at Earth from space, the pure clarity was very moving.”
“It was far more dramatic than I imagined it would be, the pure acceleration was completely surreal,” he said.
Mr Goodwin, who has Parkinson’s disease, said he wanted to show the illness “doesn’t stop you from doing things [that are] not normal”.
“I just hope some good comes out of that.”
The octogenarian bought his ticket for $200,000 in 2005 and was the fourth ever person to do so.
He paid tribute to “the acceptance of Virgin Galactic”.
“When I signed up, I didn’t have Parkinson’s. When, nine years ago, I contracted the disease I thought that’s the end of me going into space.
“They’ve done various health checks but they never stopped me doing what I wanted to do – they need an enormous amount of credit for that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anastatia Mayers said she had taken a University of Aberdeen pin into space because “they supported me through all of this”. She is studying physics and philosophy at the university.
She said “the experience has grounded me and awoken me – I definitely feel a lot more connected to Earth itself and a lot more motivated to explore and be even more adventurous”.
The mother and daughter, who are from Antigua and Barbuda, won their places in a prize draw.
The pair were the first astronauts from the Caribbean and the first mother and daughter to go into space.
Keisha Schahaff said: “I’m still up there, I’m not here yet, and it’s just amazing that you can land so smoothly on the runway coming back from space. It was so comfortable, it was really the best ride ever, and I would love to do this again.”
