The once-in-a-lifetime experience was a long time in the making. Two years ago, Schahaff won two Virgin Galactic tickets in a Space for Humanity raffle. She entered the contest while flying on a plane. Months later, Branson knocked on her door in Antigua to tell her she’d won. She immediately Facetimed her daughter, studying abroad in Scotland at Aberdeen University, and extended the invitation.
Typically, Virgin Galactic charges $450,000 per ticket. Starting in September, the company will begin regular spaceflights, with two to three tourists at a time booked about every four weeks. There’s talk of the company, eventually, working towards greater affordability, but those details generally remain unclear.
The months of build up before the takeoff were dedicated to commitment and focus. All Virgin Galactic space passengers must complete the Preflight Space Readiness Program. The 8 to 10 month training is at the Spaceport site, and designed to prepare private astronauts with a series of seminars and even flight test simulations for craft familiarity. Each syllabus depends on the individual’s physical and mental baseline.
Virgin offers accommodations close by Spaceport, as well as intensive courses that range from craft safety measures to manifest and confidence training. According to both the passengers and the staff, a huge component of the preflight experience is team bonding, creating trust and comfortability.
As a family, Mayers and Schahaff expressed that each nugget of the entire experience brought them closer together—and closer to a sense of themselves. Take the morning of the space flight, for example. On a fine line between anxiety and excitement, Schahaff stepped outside, looked up to the sky, and expressed that everything felt so “remarkably clear.”
“I could see the stars, I could see the moon, and it felt like the Universe was connecting with me again,” Schahaff says. “It said ‘you’re invited, come.’” Once Mayers woke up, she had a gut-feeling of fate and anticipation. She knew that “there was no other thing [I’d] would rather be doing.”
The entire flight was watched by audiences around the world–from the Southwestern deserts of New Mexico to huge coastal celebrations in Antigua and Barbuda, where Schahaff’s mother and Branson himself joined forces in tears.
Mayers and Schahaff’s experience has already created widespread ripple effects. From a spotlight on Antiguan and Barbudan pride to a very real, strengthening dynamic between mother and daughter. Schahaff is still processing the not-so-simple vision of Earth. As a mother, she noted that even watching her daughter throughout the journey was “breathtaking.” Now, she is more encouraged than ever to shed some insight and inspiration on dream-chasing and spirit “stretching,” which she says is crucial when reaching for goals.
Mayers, who could only say “wow” upon landing, has emphasized the level of effect the experience had on her spirit and mindset. Now appreciating the tiniest details in her life to a new immediate sense of belonging, observing the Earth was a means of absorbing indescribable love. For her part, Mayers is continuing her studies of philosophy and physics; she might just be the prime example of a new generation’s space traveler.
