Yesterday Wednesday, Virgin Galactic announced the first winner of its worldwide raffle in which a lucky man, and his companion, will take one of the seats on the next space tourism trip. Thus the winner, Keisha S. (whose last name has been withheld for privacy reasons) and her daughter, will become the first astronauts in Antigua and Barbuda.
Virgin Galactic announced its plan to raffle two seats on its spacecraft last July, following the successful launch and return of its Unity 22 mission, in which founder Richard Branson himself traveled to space for the first time. The raffle, which in turn had a fundraising nature, was carried out in association with the Omaze platform and Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization that wants to guarantee an inclusive future in space, to which the more than 1.7 million dollars raised were allocated in its short career of just eight weeks.
So, going back to the winner of the contest, Branson himself wanted to surprise the lucky woman with a small surprise, recorded on video, in which, in addition to tears and joy, Keisha materialized the words of all of us: «I’ve always had a love for flying and a fascination for space […] East it’s truly a dream come true for me«.
Although so far the first group of civilians who have been able to access the luxury of traveling to space have stood out for their great fortunesThese companies, including Bezos and Branson themselves, continue in their effort to try to bring a larger audience with them, trying to fulfill the dreams of those who cannot afford these millionaire trips on their own. In September, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 spaceflight featured billionaire financier Jared Isaacman and three other people for whom Issacman himself purchased tickets.
Although we are still far from being able to speak of something normalized and open to the common publicWithout a doubt, these advances in space tourism are increasingly promising.
