As a child, Antiguan mom Keisha Schahaff always dreamt of going into space and would often gaze up at the stars.
And now, on Thursday, Schahaff, together with her daughter Anastasia Mayers, will see that dream become reality as they make history as the first mother-daughter duo in space.
The two will be part of the second commercial spaceflight on Virgin’s Galactic 02.
“To be honest, I feel like I’ve been preparing for this all my life,” Schahaff, 46, a self-development coach, told the Cayman Compass in a recent Zoom interview from her home in Sawcolts.
She said her daughter is equally thrilled to be going. They will be joined by Jon Goodwin, 80, Olympian and early Virgin Galactic ticket holder.
The flight is scheduled to blast off at 8am on 10 Aug.
A chance ticket
Schahaff’s trip into space all started with a contest run by the Omaze company to raise funds for the Space for Humanity charity in 2020.
She said she was on a flight to London where she was taking her daughter to university in Aberdeen, Scotland, when an advertisement for the lottery popped up before an inflight movie she had selected.
Schahaff said she decided to give it a shot.
“[Sir] Richard Branson [in the ad] says would you like to go to space? And I just said, yes, … and entered it. Then I just left it alone,” she said.
Schahaff said she did not really think much about it until she started seeing emails from Virgin Galactic advising her that she was shortlisted to the top 20, and then the top five finalists.
The shocker came when they announced the winner of the trip. She was emailed requesting an interview.
“So when they did that interview with me, they said to me, ‘Okay, we are having internet issues, so we are gonna have to call you back’, [but] instead of calling me back, they just walked straight into my house and said ‘Congratulations, you’re the winner’… with Richard Branson and his team,” she excitedly recalled.
She said in that moment she knew that this was something she was born for.
“No matter what else I’ve been doing in my life, business and everything, I just still felt out of place no matter how great my life has been,” she said.
She said the whole experience has been amazing and she is so happy that her daughter has shared the same dream of going to space.
Schahaff said the three-year wait between winning the contest and blasting off, gave her time to process the news.
“I like the space that I got to really absorb everything and let it settle into me and prepare myself for it, because I feel like if I had gone off just then, it would’ve probably just gone over my head because the excitement was too big,” she said.
Mayers, in an interview with Virgin Galactic, said she was excited that, at age 18, she will be in space.
“I know I am very young. There’s so many other people like me wanting to do something involving space and don’t think that they actually have the opportunity to do that. Virgin Galactic’s mission is to expand this to civilians… Ideas are very powerful. We all need to get out of our comfort zone to try new things, to believe in ourselves,” she said.
Mayers is studying philosophy and physics in university and dreams of being an astrobiologist.
Journey to space
Schahaff said before the trip she had to declare her health status and undergo checkups, which had to be approved by a Federal Aviation Administration doctor.
She passed those checks, crediting her vegan diet for her good health.
“That [diet] luckily has kept me very fit and well, especially as I’m 46 years old,” she said, adding that she also practised her breathing as well as participated in the Virgin Galactic readiness programme which prepares crews for the space flight.
Schahaff and her daughter are now in New Mexico at the commercial Spaceport America from where the Virgin Galactic flight will take off, and where final preparations as well as getting suited for the trip take place.
She said the entire experience has taught her that no dream is too big and she wants others to believe that as well.
“You see so many people out there with dreams, but because they’re scared, sometimes they think the dreams are too big for them to handle,” she said, adding that they may be afraid to tell anyone their dreams for fear of being laughed at.
“Well, I wanna say, believe in yourself,” she said, because that is a step toward making the dream a reality.
“Just take action towards whatever your dream is because you don’t know how the stars will align for you… to make that [dream] happen for you,” she added.
Editor’s note: Anastasia Mayers’s age was changed from the original story to 18-years-old.
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