Space mission operator Virgin Galactic on Friday announced the successful return of one of its missions, including the first female astronaut from Pakistan, Namira Saleem.
In a tweet posted on X, Virgin Galactic released a video and wrote: ‘Welcome back to Earth.’
“Our pilots and crew members have landed safely at Spaceport America, New Mexico,” the post added.
Pakistan’s first female astronaut, Namira Saleem, left for this mission from the American state of New Mexico on October 6.
The flight was scheduled to take off on October 5, but the company announced on X (formerly Twitter) that the mission will take off on October 6 after a one-day delay due to spacecraft maintenance.
In 2011, Nameera Saleem, who received a medal of distinction from the government of Pakistan, had announced on September 15 about her journey to space from X, writing that she was ready to ‘fly to the stars’.
The space mission was named ‘Galactic 04’, and carried three chartered astronauts.
Namra Salim was named ‘Astronaut No. 019’ on Virgin Galactic’s website. Apart from them, there were two more private astronauts in this flight, who belong to the United States and the United Kingdom. Apart from them, three crew members were also part of the mission.
Namira bought the ticket for this space flight about 17 years ago for 200,000 dollars.
In an interview given to Independent Urdu in 2019, he said that when he bought the Virgin Galactic ticket, it was two hundred thousand US dollars, ‘now its price has increased to two and a half hundred thousand US dollars.’
However, he said that the price will come down with time, just like the first flight ticket from London to New York was very expensive but now it is much cheaper.
Namira was born in Pakistan but now lives in Monaco, a European country.
He said that he had a passion for going to space since childhood, but while living in Monaco, he learned that a private spaceship was being built and through it a new era of space travel was starting, which is called space tourism or Being called ‘Space Tourism’, he joined it.
She explains that when Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Group, ‘saw me, he presented me to the world as the first Asian woman to go into space. Richard Branson collected $380 million from Abu Dhabi through it.
Who is Namira Saleem?
Namira Salim has also been Honorary Consul of Pakistan in Monaco for 15 years. He had also set up a Pakistani consulate there, but he said that when Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government removed all honorary consuls in 2013, he was also removed, which made him ‘very sad because he There was no point.’ However, he did not apply again after that.
Namira Salim said that she has ’till now held the citizenship of Pakistan and she travels all over the world on a Pakistani passport.’
According to the Overseas Pakistani Foundation website, Namira Saleem was officially recognized as the ‘first Pakistani astronaut’ by the Government of Pakistan in 2006.
In 2007, Namira served as an honorary tourism ambassador for Pakistan. She is the first Pakistani to reach the North Pole in April 2007 and the South Pole in January 2008.
She also holds the distinction of being the first Asian and the first Pakistani to skydive on Mount Everest during the historic ‘First Everest Skydive’ in 2008.
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Namira Saleem belongs to Pakistan. After getting his primary education i.e. up to intermediate in Pakistan, he did his bachelors from Boston University in America and then his masters from Columbia University.
In an interview given to Independent Urdu in 2019, he said that he had a passion for going to space since childhood, but while living in Monaco, he learned that a private spaceship was being built and through it, space travel. A new era is starting, which is being called space tourism or ‘space tourism’, so they joined it.
She said that when Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Group, ‘saw me, he presented me to the world as the first Asian woman to go into space.’
Previously, Namira Saleem had hoisted the Pakistani flag at the North Pole in 2007 and at the South Pole in 2008. Namira Saleem also skydived from Mount Everest in 2008. Namira Saleem is the first Asian to skydive from Mount Everest.
Virgin Galactic managed to launch the first commercial flight into space in late June 2023, but the flight carried not ordinary tourists but experts from Italy.
Later in August, the company launched the first space flight for tourists, while in September, a flight also took tourists into space. Namira Saleem will also be present in the upcoming mission of this company.
The mission will carry three tourists, including Namira Salim, who will be in the cabin of the company’s VSS Unity spacecraft.
This will be the company’s fourth commercial space flight overall.
The company had been trying to launch a series of commercial flights to space for almost two decades.
Namira Salim is among the first 100 people to buy tickets for the American company’s space tourism.
He had already booked the ticket for this trip in 2006 and now he is getting a chance to go to space.
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2024-05-04 18:06:18
