On Friday (today), Namira Salim will make history when she boards a Virgin Galactic aircraft to become the first Pakistani to travel to space.
Before she and three other space travellers took off, she posted on social media, “Proud to fly the national flag high in space, Insha’Allah, on October 6.”
American astronomy professor Ron Rosano and British advertising professional Trevor Beattie make up the other two travellers. The group will also include Virgin Galactic’s principal astronaut instructor, Beth Moses.
The launch of Virgin Galactic’s space tourism mission was postponed by a day on Tuesday until Friday, October 6.
They posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “the slip will give our team an additional day to complete vehicle prep and checks.” “On Friday, we’re excited to take to the skies!”
Three paying clients will be flown into suborbital space and returned there on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spacecraft during the upcoming Galactic 04 voyage.
Before returning to Earth, the suborbital trajectory will provide travellers with several minutes of weightlessness. Even though Unity doesn’t enter orbit, it will be high enough so that passengers can observe how the Earth curves against the background of space.
Unity will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico under the wings of its carrier aircraft, Virgin Mothership (VMS) Eve.
Virgin’s fourth commercial spaceflight project, Galactic 04, will follow related flights in June, August, and September of this year.
In addition to Ms. Salim, Jameel Janjua, a Pakistani of Canadian ancestry, is the VMS Eve’s pilot. Before he joined Virgin Galactic, he had accrued more than 4,000 flight hours on more than 45 different aircraft.
Ms. Salim purchased a ticket with Virgin Galactic in 2006, making her one of the first 100 customers. The cost was $200,000 back then, but it is now $450,000.
Namira is a seasoned adventurer and the founder and chairman of the organisation Space Trust. She was the first Pakistani, per her website, to go to both the North and South Poles (in April 2007 and January 2008, respectively).
