Namira Salim has become the first Pakistani to travel to space aboard Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic competes in the suborbital space tourism sector with Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company, which has successfully launched 31 people into space.
New Delhi: Adventure enthusiast Namira Salim achieved a historic milestone on Friday by becoming the first Pakistani to journey into space. She embarked on this extraordinary journey aboard Virgin Galactic’s fifth successful flight in just five months, as announced by the US company. Namira, an adventurous individual who has explored both the North and South Poles and even parachuted over Mount Everest, had the distinction of being one of the earliest customers to purchase a ticket for a journey with billionaire Richard Branson’s space company. This event took place nearly two decades after the company’s inception.
“I love my title ‘first Pakistani astronaut,’ it’s like being a very special princess of the country. Maybe nicer than being a princess,” Salim told AFP in 2012.
According to Virgin Galactic, Salim is also a resident of Monaco and the United Arab Emirates and this also makes her the first Monegasque and the first Emirati woman to travel to space.
Welcome back to Earth, #Galactic04! Our pilots, crew and spaceship have landed safely at Spaceport America, New Mexico. pic.twitter.com/mR2qechqeC
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 6, 2023
Other than Namira, US citizen Ron Rosano and Briton Trevor Beattie were also passengers on the space trip “Galactic 04” that was held on Friday. Apart from these passengers, Beth Moses, a Virgin Galactic employee, and two pilots were also aboard.
In contrast to the traditional vertical space launches, Virgin Galactic employs a unique approach, using a twin-fuselage aircraft to transport the passenger vessel to high altitudes.
Once released from the mothership, the spaceplane ignites its thrusters and accelerates to space at speeds reaching nearly Mach-3.
During this journey, passengers get to enjoy several minutes of weightlessness, enabling them to perform somersaults and admire the Earth’s curvature through the windows.
POV: You’re a spaceship camera on VSS Unity during #Galactic04. 📸 pic.twitter.com/ofW8rnwEmb
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 6, 2023
The spacecraft then glides back to Earth, completing its landing a little over an hour after departing from Spaceport in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic competes in the field of “suborbital” space tourism with billionaire Jeff Bezos’s company, Blue Origin, which has successfully sent 31 individuals into space using vertical liftoff rockets. However, following an accident during an unmanned flight in September 2022, Blue Origin’s rocket operations were halted. The investigation into the incident concluded at the end of September, with the US aviation regulator requiring the company to make changes before resuming its flights.