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On August 10th, Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her daughter Anastasia Mayers, 18, will become the first female astronauts from Antigua & Barbuda, and the first mother-daughter pair in the Caribbean to travel into space.
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Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastasia Mayers. Photo: WIC News |
Keisha Schahaff and her daughter will board the Galactic 02 spacecraft from Spaceport America, New Mexico, on the first private space flight with Virgin Galactic astronauts. This will also be the second commercial space flight.
The Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority will hold two public screenings on August 10th for people across the country to watch the event.
The screening is expected to be attended by many special guests, including the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, Gaston Browne; the founder of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson; and American-Jamaican astronaut Christopher Huie, who earlier this year became the 19th Black astronaut.
Previously, Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first commercial flight to the edge of space on June 29th. The Galactic 01 flight, lasting approximately 75 minutes, was conducted two years after the company's first fully crewed test flight aboard its VSS Unity spacecraft. This trip marked a turning point for Virgin Galactic, a company that has been developing this commercial service for nearly 20 years and has frequently faced numerous obstacles.
Virgin Galactic has sold approximately 800 tickets for commercial space flights, including 600 tickets priced between $200,000 and $250,000 each and 200 tickets priced at $450,000 each. The company plans to conduct monthly commercial flights following the successful Galactic 02 spacecraft flight on August 10th.
Virgin Galactic is competing with Blue Origin, the space travel company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
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