Helmsdale native embraces Scottish link with first mother and daughter duo in space
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Sutherland native Dave Mackay is no stranger to historic milestones as the chief pilot with Virgin Galactic.
And this week he met with the world's first mother and daughter pairing into space.
Virgin Galactic Holdings will launch its seventh spaceflight and second commercial spaceflight, known as Galactic 02, tomorrow.
The company aims to fly three private passengers in to space, achieving several historical milestones and furthering their mission of broadening access to space.
Ahead of the flight window tomorrow, one of the private passengers, Anastatia Mayers, met with their chief pilot at Spaceport America.
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Both instantly connected with their Scottish links, with Ana currently studying at the University of Aberdeen, and Dave, who comes from Helmsdale, being the first native-born Scot to visit space.
The Helmsdale man joined Virgin Galactic in 2009 and is the company’s chief pilot.
He later became the first Scottish astronaut during Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity flight on February 22, 2019 and became a two-time astronaut as a pilot on VSS Unity’s first flight from new Mexico on May 22.
Anastatia Mayers is an 18-year-old philosophy and physics student at Aberdeen University. Driven by a passion for the sciences, she was drawn to the mix her degree offers.
It was on this basis that her mother, Keisha Schahaff, elected to accompany her on her spaceflight.
Both Antiguan-born and raised, Keisha and Anastatia are set to become the first astronauts from the Caribbean, and the first mother and daughter-duo to fly to space.
In a quirk of fate, Anastatia will become the second astronaut to hail from the University of Aberdeen.
Anastatia said “Philosophy and physics make an interesting combination, but it expresses both my love for science and my curiosity about how the world works.”
The dynamic and multinational crew highlights the role the commercial space industry can play in removing barriers that once existed to becoming an astronaut.
To date, fewer than 700 people have travelled to space, with little diversity among that group.
Virgin Galactic say their mission is to change that – beginning with an 800 strong "future astronaut community" that represents more than 60 different nations.
The Galactic 02 mission will achieve several historical milestones, showcasing the power of each Virgin Galactic spaceflight to help redefine who gets to be an astronaut.
VSS Unity will fly:
- The first astronauts from the Caribbean
- The first mother-daughter duo to go to space
- The first Olympian to go to space
- The second youngest person to go to space
- The second person with Parkinson’s to go to space
Audiences are invited to participate virtually in the spaceflight and enjoy the experience first-hand.
The livestream will be available to watch on virgingalactic.com.
