Virgin Galactic Flies Its First Tourists to Space — Including a Mother-daughter Duo and Former Olympian

Onboard the momentous flight was Anastasia Mayers, an 18-year-old college student from Antigua who became the youngest person to ever go into space.

Shortly after dawn, the sun crept over the hanger of Spaceport America, the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. The golden sand and jagged cliffs reflected off the building’s shiny glass facade, and a rugged New Mexico landscape came into focus.

Later that morning, the spaceship VSS Unity rocketed into space (and back), bringing Virgin Galactic’s first paying customers into the cosmos. For about 90 minutes, the three private passengers and three Virgin crew who embarked on the “Galactic 02” mission soared 300,000 feet above Earth, a precious blue jewel amidst sheer blackness, at three times the speed of sound. The event was nearly 20 years in the making for the ambitious space tourism company first founded by Richard Branson in 2004.

Onboard the momentous, majority-women flight was Anastasia Mayers, an 18-year-old college student who became the youngest person to ever go into space. Keisha Schahaff, 46, flew alongside Mayers, making the two the first mother-daughter duo and Caribbean natives to make the journey beyond Earth’s limits.

“The fact that I am here, the first to travel to space from Antigua, shows that space really is becoming more accessible,” Schahaff told Travel + Leisure before the flight launch at the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. “When I was two years old, just looking up to the skies, I thought, ‘How can I get there?’ But, being from the Caribbean, I didn’t see how something like this would be possible.”

In 2022, Schahaff won a competition as part of a charity raffle for Space for Humanity, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to the transformative view from space, a phenomenon known as the “Overview Effect.” With two seats, Schahaff elected to bring her daughter, Anastasia. Tickets for Virgin Galactic’s flights are currently priced at a sky-high $450,000 per seat, but the company aims to eventually bring the cost down once spacecraft are produced at scale in several years — and to work with partners like Space for Humanity.

Joining the mother-daughter team inside Unity was Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old former British Olympian battling Parkinson’s, who had been awaiting the experience since he purchased a ticket in September of 2005. “I'm hoping that I can instill in other people around the world, especially people with Parkinson's, that an illness doesn’t have to stop you from doing things,” Goodwin said in a post-flight interview.

With several months of astronaut training under their belts, the three passengers arrived in New Mexico in the days leading up to the Galactic 02 mission. The bespoke astronaut facility, with a futuristic Tron-like entrance and luxurious digs, is where Schahaff, Mayers, and Goodwin familiarized themselves with the flight experience. There’s even a full-size replica of the Unity spaceship.

While Unity might appear to be an ordinary plane from a distance — even taking off and landing like one — it’s anything but normal. And instead of a traditional rocket launch from the ground, the vessel embarks on its suborbital journey from mid-air at 44,000 feet. Once aloft, Unity detaches from its mated mothership, separate rocket motors fire, and those aboard can experience zero gravity and suborbital views from 17 windows in the cabin. After several minutes, the vehicle re-enters Earth’s atmosphere before effortlessly gliding back onto the runway that it initially came from.

“That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done,” Schahaff said shortly after re-emerging from VSS Unity to a crowd of friends, family, and media. “I’ve been to space and back with my daughter. Antigua went to space!” Indeed, it was a watershed moment for the Caribbean nation with both Schahaff and Mayers the country’s pride and joy. A contingent of Antiguan officials cheered live from Spaceport, waving flags throughout the morning, while thousands more watched from afar. Prime Minister Gaston Alfonso Browne hosted a public viewing party in Antigua with Richard Branson and over 200 students, all enrolled in specialized STEM programs, in attendance. 

Schahaff brought a few pieces of home more than 50 miles up. That included a variety of keepsakes and mementos stored in the pockets of her astronaut spacesuit. “I took Antigua and Barbuda’s pink sand, our flag, and my favorite shells,” she said.

Meanwhile, Goodwin and his wife, Pauline, embraced on the runway following his safe return onto solid ground. “This is without a doubt the most exciting day of my life,” he admitted to a crowd of onlookers.

“This flight highlights two of Virgin Galactic’s core aspirations — increasing access to space and inspiring people around the world,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic. “Watching Keisha, Ana, and Jon embark on this transformative experience helps demonstrate that space is now opening to a broader and more diverse population across the globe.”

Fewer than 700 humans have traveled above the Earth’s atmosphere into space, and Virgin Galactic has approximately 800 people from 60 different countries in its Future Astronaut community. While its tourism flights are the ones that get the most attention, the company also flies researchers into space to conduct experiments. In fact, in June, a research mission with the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy became Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight ever. Virgin plans to conduct one private space flight every four weeks for the foreseeable future, likely until its next-generation spacecraft launch in 2026.

Just after 8:30 a.m. MT on Aug. 10, 2023, VSS Eve took to the skies from Spaceport America. But Schahaff says the experience is going to be ingrained in her and her daughter’s minds forever: “I’m still up there, I’m still up in space.”

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