Virgin Galactic: British man flying to Space along with a mum and daughter

An 80-year-old British former Olympian will be on a rocket plane, due to fly from New Mexico, into space.

Aberdeen student Anastasia Mayers and her mother Keisha Schahaff will also be onboard, The pair won tickets in a Virgin Galactic flight competition.

Jon Goodwin will become the second person with Parkinson’s disease to go to space.

The mission will be seen as another test of how viable space tourism is.

The launch window for the Virgin Galactic 02 flight opens at 08:30 local time (15:30 BST). It is Virgin Galactic’s second commercial flight.

Schahaff, from Antigua, was flying to the UK to sort out her daughter’s visa when she entered a competition to join spaceflight.

She found out months later that she had won two spaceflight seats in the draw.

“Suddenly, who’s walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The whole team just swarmed into my house saying ‘you’re the winner, you’re going to space’,” she said.

Her daughter will become the second youngest person to go to space, and says she hopes to inspire others.

“That would be very important to me, both in Scotland and Antigua and anywhere else I have any ties,” she says.

“My intention is to just break any barriers that we set for ourselves or that the world sets for us.”