Orange County (California): Galactic 04 spaceflight carrying Namira Salim and three other astronauts took off to space at 09:39 AM MDT (09:09 PM IST) Friday October 06, 2023, Virgin Galactic said a little while ago.
Namira Salim is the first Pakistani female and first female UAE resident to fly into space as a tourist.
The other two space tourists who accompanied Namira Salim for this paid history journey are British advertising executive, Trevor Beattie, and American astronomy educator, Ron Rosano.
Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s Chief Astronaut Instructor, also joined the trio on this space trip.
BRB. Going off-planet. We have a successful #galactic04 take-off from @Spaceport_NM! pic.twitter.com/rpnXqQG1B0— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 6, 2023
BRB. Going off-planet. We have a successful #galactic04 take-off from @Spaceport_NM! pic.twitter.com/rpnXqQG1B0
Virgin Galactic had earlier today announced the Galactic 4 liftoff at 09:00 AM MDT. It however took off 39 minutes later.
The three paying space tourists are scheduled to launch on a suborbital trajectory aboard Virgin Galactic's reusable space plane, VSS Unity.
VSS Unity's carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, took off from Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America in New Mexico at the designated time today at 09:15 pm IST. It will carry Unity and her crew to altitude before releasing the space plane to rocket itself the rest of the way to space, according to space.com.
In another proud moment for Pakistan, VMS Eve is piloted by a Canadian of Pakistani origin, Jameel Janjua.
Namira Salim, who identifies herself as a "Space Dipomat", is the Founder and Executive Chairperson of Space Trust, a non-profit initiative she launched in 2015 soon after privatization of Space was announced.
She is also a Founder Astronaut of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the First private space-line of the world. She is internationally renowned as the First (future) Space Tourist of South Asian origin and the first private Astronaut to go to space from Dubai and Monaco.
"Proud to fly the national flag high in space Insha'Allah on October 6", Namira wrote on social media platform X originally launched as Twitter ahead of her space tour.
Galactic 04, Virgin Galactic’s 4th commercial mission in space, was originally scheduled for liftoff on October 05, 2023. The mission was however delayed by a day.
Galactic 04 is also Virgin Galactic’s 9th spaceflight and 5th spaceflight in 2023.
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