An airline, but for space

Around 11 am ET, the launch window for Virgin Galactic’s first spaceflight containing at least one paying civilian passenger begins. And for the Richard Branson-founded space company, which opened shop in 2004, it’s been a long time coming.

On board today’s spaceflight will be six people – three civilian passengers (one paying) and three Virgin Galactic crew members.

• Passenger #1: Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old former British olympian who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease nine years ago. He’s the paying crew member, shelling out $250,000 for a ticket in 2005.
• Passengers #2 and #3: Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, the first mother-daughter duo to ever go to space. The pair won the tickets in a fundraising competition from Space for Humanity (like we covered in yesterday’s Dose of Positive).
• Crew members: Joining the civilians are Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, pilot Kelly Latimer, and flight commander CJ Sturckow.

🚀🌌 The experience: Passengers and crew will reach an altitude of ~50 miles, considered the edge of space by the US government (though some scientists consider 62 miles the lower boundary of space). Everyone on board will experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth – and will be wearing diapers for the whole 90-ish-minute trip.

👀 Looking ahead… Today’s launch marks the beginning of Virgin Galactic’s space tourism program (think: an airline but for space), pitting the company directly against competitors like SpaceX and Blue Origin. Virgin – which already has a passenger waitlist of 800 people – will now be moving to regular monthly launches, with five more missions planned through year-end.