REGIONAL – Antiguan woman wins trip to space

Source: St Lucia Times – An Antiguan woman will be going to space, possibly with her daughter, after winning two seats aboard a Virgin Galactic’s commercial space flight.

Keisha Schahaff was announced the winner of Virgin Galactic and Sir Richard Branson’s Omaze fundraising sweepstakes on Wednesday and said she hopes to take her 17-year-old daughter, an astrophysics student, along for the trip that is worth almost US$1 million. Tickets are currently on sale for US$450,000 each.

The health and energy coach said the opportunity was a dream come true.

“I entered the sweepstakes after I saw an ad…but who would have thought that I’d actually win? My daughter is studying STEM and wants to work at NASA, and I hope to share this experience with her because it would be an incredible dream come true for both of us and our entire family.

“I’ve always had a lifelong love of flying and a fascination with space and this is truly a dream come true for me. 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,” the 44-year-old mother said.

Later, in a post on her Facebook page, Schanaff said she was ready for the experience and to represent her twin-island nation as well as the wider Caribbean.

“The training will take some time, I know, but I’m super ready to embrace every experience onwards. It’s a pleasure to be an ambassador for our island and the Caribbean, the first of our kind to enter space and I’m ready to represent. My heart is open and ready to unite, to empower and to inspire,” she wrote.

“I plan to contribute positively to our society, bringing unity, protecting earth and growing as a human family. I hope my experience will show that dreams do come true and this will empower us all to trust in the alignment of the universe and know that anything is possible.”