A mother and daughter had the luck of the draw when they took a chance and entered a sweepstakes. Now they’re going to make history.
Keisha Schahaff was traveling to the United Kingdom to help her daughter Anastatia Mayers when she had issues with her visa, BBC News reported.
Schahaff was flying Virgin Atlantic when she saw an ad for the contest.
“I filled out this sweepstake and then suddenly months later I’m getting correspondences saying that you’re a top 20 finalist, then a top five finalist, to becoming a winner,” she told BBC News.
She found out that she was a winner from Virgin Galactic’s owner himself.
Richard Branson walked into her yard with his team, telling her “You’re the winner, you’re going to space.”
Schahaff and Mayers will be joined by Jon Goodwin as part of the three-person crew, Space.com said.
Goodwin is a former British Olympian who competed in the 1972 Munich games, Insider reported. He bought his ticket 18 years ago for $250,000.
Goodwin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but he continues to be an adventurer, climbing up and cycling down Mount Kilimanjaro. He will be the second person with Parkinson’s to go into space, Space.com said. He will be the first Olympian, according to Insider.
There will also be the astronaut instructor who trained the trio and two pilots when they go into suborbital space on Thursday. The flight will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
[ Ready for blastoff: Virgin Galactic to launch first commercial space flight ]
A carrier plane, the VMS Eve, will take off from a runway at the facility, carrying the SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity. When the plane gets to 50,000 feet, it will drop the Unity which will use a rocket motor to get to the edge of space, according to Space.com.