Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE), recently announced that it has awarded Keisha S., from Antigua and Barbuda, two seats on Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity space plane through the charity fundraising platform Omaze. This would amount to approximately $900,000, which comes out to $450,000 per seat.
Keisha will be part of Virgin Galactic's Future Astronaut community as the first to enter from the Caribbean islands. The Future Astronaut community is a growing family that consists of over 700 people from over 60 different nations, all of whom share and come together through a common desire for adventure and the desire to push past the limitations of mankind.
Keisha has stated that she intends to go into space with her daughter, who is currently studying astrophysics in school. "I've always had a lifelong love of flying and a fascination with space, and this is truly a dream come true for me," Keisha said in a press statement. "It means the world to me. I hope to share this experience with my daughter, so together we can inspire the next generation to follow their dreams."
Although the contest had no charge in order to enter, it was also possible to make donations to Space for Humanity, which is a charity that focuses on making flying into space more easily attainable. In total, Virgin Galactic approximated that it earned around $1.7 million in grants for its Citizen Astronaut Program in this way.
The reason that Virgin Galactic conducted this particular giveaway is because it wanted to gather business for its attempts at space tourism. It was also a good time for private spaceflight. Beforehand, winning tickets into outer space was not exactly possible, back when government-funded organizations were the only places that sent individuals out into space.
The winning of this particular sweepstakes by Keisha S. will surely create continued conversation and hype around the charity platform of Omaze. It will attract unconventional ways of flying into space, or of encouraging individuals to follow their dreams, pushing the boundaries and limitations of spaceflight and what it means to those who desire it.