Caribbean Women Become First Mother and Daughter in Space
Two competition winners from the Caribbean have made history as the first mother and daughter to go to space together.
Anastatia Mayers and her mother, Keisha Shahaff, were on board the Virgin Galactic 02 mission that took off from New Mexico on August 10. As an 18-year-old university student, Mayers is also among the youngest people to go to space.
Shahaff won tickets for the trip after entering a competition while on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Antigua to London. When she found out she had won two tickets, she immediately asked her daughter to accompany her.
The flight, which took four passengers and two pilots to around 85 kilometers above the Earth, was the second commercial mission to space completed by Virgin Galactic, and the first to have paying customers on board.
Once around 80 kilometers up, passengers on board the ship, called the VSS Unity, were able to experience weightlessness and see incredible views of Earth from the ship's 17 windows.
Flights on the VSS Unity last around 90 minutes, with tickets costing up to $450,000 per person.
Mayers and Shahaff were not only the first mother and daughter to go to space, but also the first people from the Caribbean to go there.
"I want people to know that it doesn't matter where you come from, who you are — anything — your dream is your dream and you can make that happen, despite what anyone else says," Mayers told the BBC.
Mayers hasn't yet finished studying at Scotland's University of Aberdeen, but Virgin Galactic wrote in a tweet: "curiosity is the single most important qualification you need to be a part of the next era of space travel."
The mother and daughter were joined by former British Olympic canoeist Jon Goodwin on their flight.
