Virgin Galactic, on Wednesday, revealed the latest addition to its “future astronaut” community, the winner of a sweepstakes announced following founder Richard Branson’s own flight in July.
Keisha Schahaff, of Antigua, won two tickets to suborbital space on a Virgin Galactic spacecraft in the sweepstakes held with charity fundraising platform Omaze. She was surprised with the prize and a personal visit at her home by Branson.
Schahaff greeted the news with a great deal of laughter and squeals, as seen by a video released, Wednesday, by Virgin Galactic.
“It’s very crazy, but I always dreamt of life beyond Earth. I think dreams can come true, maybe not in this lifetime, but it will come true eventually,” she said in the video.
Schahaff said she plans to take her daughter, an astrophysics student, with her on the spaceflight with the second ticket.
Seeing Branson in person, she told him, “I get to say I love you and thank you.”
According to Virgin Galactic, Schahaff will be the first astronaut from Antigua.
Born and raised on the Caribbean island, Schahaff is a health and energy coach, “who is passionate about empowering women to live their best lives,” according to the Virgin Galactic announcement of the prize.
“Being able to give people of all ages and backgrounds equal access to space, and in turn, the opportunity to lead and inspire others back on Earth, is what Virgin Galactic has been building towards for the past two decades,” Branson said in the announcement release. “It was remarkable to be there for the beginning of Keisha’s journey to space; she is an extraordinary person who is already inspiring people with the work she does to support women in her home of Antigua and Barbuda. This experience will provide another platform for her to inspire many more people into the future.”
Omaze offers people the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences to support charities around the world through its sweepstakes model.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce Keisha as the winner of our biggest experience offering to date,” Omaze CEO and co-founder Matt Pohlson said in the release. “Omaze exists to dream the world better. Not only will a lifelong stargazer get to experience space, but this also helps Space for Humanity open up that opportunity to even more people.”
The sweepstakes involved charitable donations to increase the number of entries; for example, a $10 donation equaled 100 entries.
The proceeds benefit Space for Humanity, a nonprofit devoted to expanding human access to space to promote an interconnectedness from what is known as “the overview effect,” the shift in perspective from seeing the Earth from space.
Organizers announced a projected $1.7 million was raised for the nonprofit through the 164,338 people worldwide who entered the sweepstakes.
“This is transformational for our organization,” Space for Humanity Executive Director Rachel Lyons said in the video with Schahaff. “The perspective that astronauts gain from going to space and looking and seeing this interconnected, fragile, beautiful planet, we believe that this is the most important prospective we can take on right now.”
“This gift will help us to make the world a better place,” she said.
No timeline was given for when Schahaff’s flight would take place. Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, Unity, and the WhiteKnightTwo mothership which carries it aloft for launch, are both down for major maintenance work right now, with WhiteKnightTwo arriving back at the vehicles’ birthplace at the Mojave Air and Space Port late last month.
Virgin Galactic operates suborbital spaceflights from Spaceport America in New Mexico using the Mojave-developed SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo aircraft.
The planned overhaul of WhiteKnightTwo is expected to take several months, pushing the flight schedule to mid-2022.
The next flight scheduled is a test flight with the Italian Air Force, originally set for October, but postponed in favor of beginning the overhaul period after finding structural problems with the aircraft.
The company stated in August, it planned to ground Unity and the WhiteKnightTwo mothership dubbed “Eve” for maintenance and improvements later this year.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.