Virgin Galactic's tourist 'astronauts' left 'starstruck' after trip to edge of space. Watch!
Virgin Galactic tourist flight
World's first space tourism flight has made it back to Earth with its three civilian passengers.The 'space tourists' that went to the edge of space are quite naturally "starstruck". Video released by Virgin Galactic, the company behind Galactic-02, shows them peering outside the spacecraft's windows and glimpsing our planet from the vast emptiness of space.
Surreal experience
In a press conference that took place after the successful conclusion of humanity's first ever space "trip," one of the passengers, 80-year-old Jon Goodwin, said "The most impressive thing was looking at Earth from space. Just the pure clarity was very moving."
"Quite surreal and without a doubt the most exciting day of my life," added the adventurer, who competed in the 1972 Olympic Games as a canoeist for Britain.
Have a look at a video of the surreal journey here:
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Many milestones established
As per Virgin Galactic, the flight set many milestones, including: the most women in a single mission; first mother-daughter duo to go to space; first Olympian to go to space; the sixth and seventh black women to go to space; second person with Parkinson's to go to space; the youngest person to go to space; and third oldest person to go to space.
Recounting the hours before take-off, Anastatia's mother 46-year-old Keisha Schahaff, another passenger abroad the space flight, said: "I woke up feeling really ready, and I went outside and I just looked up at the skies, and it was remarkably clear. I could see the stars, I could see the moon. And it felt like the universe was connecting with me again and says, 'You're invited, come'. So I was ready."
'Starstruck'
Talking about her experience, 18-year-old Anastatia Mayers who was the youngest ever person to go space, said: "You are so much more connected to everything than you would expect to be. You felt like a part of the team, a part of the ship, a part of the universe, a part of Earth. It was incredible, and I'm still starstruck."
The group spenta few minutes floating weightless in space at around 53 miles (85 kilometres) above sea level and admired the curvature of the Earth from space, before the spacecraft glidedback to Earth.
On Thursday (August 10th), the Virgin Galactic flight, which is a culmination of a nearly two-decade programme for commercial space tourism, lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico, and after spending a few minutes in space safely landed on the same runway, it took off from.
(With inputs from agencies)
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