University of Aberdeen student reaches edge of space

A student from the University of Aberdeen has reached the edge of space.

Anastatia Mayers, along with her mother Keisha Schahaff and former Olympian Jon Goodwin were on Virgin Galactic's first commercial flight.

The mothership VMS Eve took off from New Mexico at about 3.30pm UK time.

After reaching an altitude of about 44,500 feet, VSS Unity was released just after 4.17pm UK time and, a short time later, the passengers were given the all-clear to unbuckle by the instructor and enjoy zero gravity for a few minutes while observing the curvature of the Earth and the black of space.

As soon as they unbuckled, all three passengers were keen to get a view out of the nearest window, watching Earth drop away as they continued to ascend.

They then returned to their seats and strapped themselves back in ahead of the return journey.

In June, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic successfully completed the company's first commercial spaceflight, taking Italian astronauts into space to conduct a number of scientific experiments.

The company is calling the first private astronaut mission on Thursday, Galactic 02.

If all goes well, Richard Branson's company will begin offering monthly trips to customers on its winged space plane, joining Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX in the space tourism business.

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