irgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight has landed safely after carrying three passengers together with an 80-year-old British former Olympian with Parkinson’s illness.

Jon Goodwin, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, joined Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her daughter Anastatia Mayers, 18, who's learning physics in Aberdeen, on the VSS Unity for the 90-minute journey.

The complete flight was scheduled to take round 90 minutes and Virgin introduced its secure return at 4.39pm UK time.

Mr Goodwin, who competed within the 1972 Olympics as a canoeist, is just the second particular person with Parkinson’s illness to go to house.

Read More

The two girls are the primary mom and daughter to make a visit to house after profitable a coveted place in a prize draw, whereas Mr Goodwin secured his seat 18 years in the past after paying for a 250,000 greenback (£194,500) ticket.

The launch from New Mexico and secure touchdown on Thursday afternoon is seen as a check of how viable house tourism is.

The VSS Unity separated from the mothership VMS Eve at about 4.20pm BST, taking the passengers into sub-orbital house, the place they had been in a position to expertise weightlessness whereas trying again at Earth.

Moments later, at round 9.19am, footage from inside Unity confirmed the passengers out of their seats, weightless and peering on the Earth exterior the rocket’s home windows.

Further footage from cameras mounted on the surface of the rocket confirmed the curvature of the Earth.

The three passengers had been joined by astronaut teacher Beth Moses.

The journey will elevate funds for Space for Humanity, a non-profit group which seeks to ship unusual residents into house to provide them a “grander perspective" on the challenges facing Earth.

In June, Sir Richard Branson’s company successfully completed the company’s first commercial spaceflight, taking Italian astronauts into space to conduct a number of scientific experiments.

The company is calling the first private astronaut mission on Thursday Galactic 02.

Mr Goodwin was the first of around 800 individuals to buy tickets for a ride on the Unity rocket.

Meanwhile, Ms Schahaff, from Antigua, was flying to the UK to sort out her daughter’s visa when she entered a competition to join the spaceflight.

The wellness coach found out months later that she had won two spaceflight seats.

“Suddenly, who’s walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The whole team just swarmed into my house saying ‘you’re the winner, you’re going to space’,” she mentioned.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin beat Virgin Galactic within the race to develop into the primary firm to take paying passengers into house in July 2021.