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Keisha Schahaff (left) and her daughter Anastia Mayers will be the first mother and daughter to travel to space together. (Source: Telegraph) |
They are also the first female astronauts from Antigua & Barbuda, a Central American country.
Anastia Mayers (18 years old), a second-year physics student at the University of Aberdeen (UK) and her mother Keisha Schahaff (46 years old) will travel to space this weekend after winning tickets on the second commercial flight of the American space travel company Virgin Galactic in a lucky draw.
The mother and daughter will take off from the spaceport in New Mexico on August 10.
Anastia said she hopes she can use this experience to inspire others.
"This will be very important to me... I hope that people will follow and support the flight. My intention is to break down all the barriers that we put on ourselves or that the world puts on us."
“I want people to know that it doesn't matter where you come from, or who you are – your dream is your dream and you can make it come true, regardless of what anyone else says,” she said.
“For me and my daughter, this flight was more than a dream come true,” Keisha said.
The mother and daughter will be joined by former GB Olympian Jon Goodwin from Newcastle, England. Mr Goodwin will become the first Olympian and second person with Parkinson's disease to go into space.
The Galactic 02 flight is the second commercial space flight by Virgin Galactic. The price of a ticket for this flight is up to 450,000 USD.
Virgin Galactic successfully completed its first commercial space flight on June 29. The flight, called Galactic 01, lasted about 75 minutes and was carried out two years after the first test flight of the company's VSS Unity spacecraft.
Virgin Galactic plans to launch commercial space flights monthly, following the successful launch of its Galactic 02 flight.
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