Virgin Galactic launch: Olympian and mother-daughter duo take off on space tourism flight
first-ever space tourists lifted off on Thursday on a journey that saw them soar 50 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Branson himself was not present at the launch but joined Ms Schahaff’s family in Antigua to celebrate the takeoff. England’s Jon Goodwin has become the first Olympian to travel to space, and the second person in space with Parkinson’s disease “I filled out this sweepstake and then suddenly months later I’m getting correspondences saying that you’re a top 20 finalist, then a top five finalist, to becoming a winner,” Ms Schahaff told the BBC.
Her daughter, Keisha, is a philosophy and physics student at the University of Aberdeen and is the second youngest person to travel to space.
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