Anastatia Mayers, an 18-year-old student studying at Aberdeen University will travel to space with her mother Keisha Schahaff after winning a prize draw to go on Richard branson-founded Virgin Galactic’s second commercial flight. The mother-daughter duo are from Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean.
Schahaff won two seats through a philanthropic fundraising draw where the proceeds went to Space for Humanity. When Schahaff won, Branson paid her a surprise visit at her home in Antigua to share the news himself. She chose Mayers, her youngest daughter who is a college philosophy and physics student to go along with her. Apart from being the first mother-daughter duo to fly in space, they are also the first astronauts from Antigua and Barbuda.
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Interestingly, Anastatia will not be the first student from the University of Aberdeen to go to space. That would be Brian Binnie, who got an honorary degree from the university. In 2004, Binnie piloted SpaceShipOne to space.
“My mom read about the competition back in 2021 while we were on our way to another Caribbean Island to get my visa for studying at the University of Aberdeen. We had to take an insane detour. So instead of a one-hour flight, it was 16 hours through London and then back down into the Caribbean,” said Mayers in a university press statement.
It was on that flight that Schahaff entered the draw and told Mayers. At the time, Mayers put it at the back of her mind and was more concerned with moving to Aberdeen and her university life. Until she got a call from her mother a few months later.
“That was when she told me we won the trip to space. I remember saying ‘What are you talking about? You’ve finally lost it’. I was in utter shock. I wasn’t able to piece my words together. I was in disbelief. I’m still processing the fact we get to do this,” she added.
This spaceflight will be breaking a lot of boundaries. Mayers will also become the youngest person to fly to space by a few weeks as per Virgin Galactic. Mayers and Schahaff will be joined by former British Olympian Jon Goodwin.
Keisha Schahaff (left) and Anastatia Mayers are pictured here. (Virgin Galactic) 
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