Virgin Galactic: Mum, daughter and Brit, 80, count down to space flight

A rocket level is owed to alert from New Mexico carrying an 80-year-old British erstwhile Olympian, an Aberdeen pupil and her parent into space.

Anastatia Mayers and her parent Keisha Schahaff won the tickets to committee the Virgin Galactic formation successful a competition.

Jon Goodwin, from Newcastle, volition go the 2nd idiosyncratic with Parkinson's illness to spell to space.

The ngo volition beryllium seen arsenic different trial of however viable abstraction tourism is.

The motorboat model for the Virgin Galactic 02 formation opens astatine 08:30 section clip (15:30BST). It is Virgin Galactic's 2nd commercialized flight. The archetypal was successful June erstwhile the Italian Air Force and scientists conducted experiments successful weightless conditions connected a 70-minute mission.

The rocket is carried connected the archetypal signifier of its travel connected committee a bearer plane, known arsenic Eve. It volition past purpose to ignite its motor and question to an altitude of 279,000ft (85km).

The advertised terms for a spot connected a Virgin Galactic formation has been arsenic precocious arsenic $450,000 (£350,000). Mr Goodwin, who competed successful the 1972 Olympics arsenic a canoeist, paid $250,000 for his summons successful 2005 but had feared his diagnosis would mean helium could not instrumentality part.

He said helium wanted to beryllium that his information - Parkinson's illness is simply a information successful which parts of the encephalon go progressively damaged - did not specify him.

Around 100 radical volition ticker him question into abstraction astatine a enactment successful Stoke-on-Trent organised by Parkinson's UK.

She recovered retired months aboriginal that she had won 2 spaceflight seats successful the draw.

"Suddenly, who's walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The full squad conscionable swarmed into my location saying 'you're the winner, you're going to space'," she said.

Her girl Anastatia volition go the 2nd youngest idiosyncratic to spell to space, and says she hopes to animate others.

"That would beryllium precise important to me, some successful Scotland and Antigua and anyplace other I person immoderate ties," she says.

"My volition is to conscionable interruption immoderate barriers that we acceptable for ourselves oregon that the satellite sets for us.

The formation volition purpose to scope the borderline of space, astir 85km supra Earth, wherever the passengers volition person a fewer minutes to acquisition weightlessness.

The spaceship does not person the velocity to implicit a afloat orbit of the globe.

The 3 customers are the archetypal connected a database of 800 oregon truthful individuals who person bought tickets for a thrust connected the Unity rocket.

Some of person been waiting implicit a decennary to get their chance, and astir volition person a agelong hold still.

US multi-millionaire Dennis Tito became the world's archetypal ever abstraction tourer successful 2001, paying a reported $20m.

Recently Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' abstraction institution Blue Origin bushed Virgin Galactic successful the contention to go the archetypal institution to instrumentality paying passengers into space.

Both companies accidental their missions further subject arsenic good arsenic catering to the precise rich, but abstraction tourism has been criticised for its outgo and biology impact.