Virgin Galactic, a spacecraft manufacturer and space tourism company, carried tourists into space for the first time after its first commercial flight last June.
The spacecraft 'VSS Unity', which took off from Spaceport America in the US state of New Mexico at 08.30 local time with the aircraft named "Eve", separated from Eve at an altitude of 15 kilometers and ignited its engines.
Unity then reached a height of 85 kilometers above the earth with its own engines and reached the zero gravity environment. Tourists had the opportunity to experience the zero-gravity environment for about 5 minutes. After about 90 minutes of flight, VSS Unity successfully landed at Spaceport America.
FIRST MOTHER-DAUGHTER SPACE TRAVELER
Among the passengers were 18-year-old Anastasia Mayers and her mother Keisha Schahaff, who won a ticket to the spacecraft through a contest, as well as 80-year-old former British Olympic athlete Jon Goodwin, who bought a ticket for the flight. Goodwin was the first Olympic athlete and second Parkinson's patient to go into space, while 18-year-old Mayers was the second youngest person to go into space. Mayers and her mother Schahaff became the first mother and daughter to travel into space.
Meanwhile, last month Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first commercial flight, taking three people into space on a flight paid for by the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council.
British businessman Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Galactic, flew into space with a team of six people in July 2021 and became the "first billionaire in space".
So far, 800 people have bought tickets to go to space with Virgin Galactic, while the ticket price reached 450 thousand dollars after the recent hikes.
Source: Ihlas News Agency
