Magazine
The first Ugandan in outer space
SpaceShipOne, the model for SpaceShipTwo, which will fly Thakrar and his fellow astronauts on a 4-minute hop into space.
When the time came for him to propose to his longtime girlfriend, he chose to pop the question on the helipad of the Burj al Arab, Dubai’s 7-star luxury hotel, 321 metres above the ground, of Dubai.
The stunning view of the city, millions of lights stretching away in every direction far below them, left her so dizzy that she now insists it was her fear of heights that carried the day.
She consented to marry him just so he would take her back to ground level — or so she says.
That was in September, last year.
This year, Ashish Thakkar, who believes heights have always worked magic for him, is planning a far more daring escapade that is going to take him rather higher than the top of the Burj al Arab.
Instead of a constellation of man-made lights, this time around he will be surrounded by the countless trillions of stars in the universe.
The 28 year-old resident of Kampala is among the initial group of Virgin Galactic space tourists who have signed on for a trip to outer space that includes four to five minutes of weightlessness and will take 2.5 hours.
When Virgin Airlines tycoon Branson announced the Virgin Galactic venture in 2004, he said flights might begin in 2008.
Delays have pushed the date to 2010, more likely 2011.
Customers will be sent into space by rocket after being flown 50,000 feet into the air by a carrier craft called WhiteKnightTwo, which will take off from a runway, unlike the American space shuttles.
It has passed three tests, Wincer said.
The Virgin Galactic spacecraft built by Scaled Composites will be strapped to the underbelly of a specially designed jet carrier.
At 50,000 feet while still airborne, the spacecraft will be released to continue the journey on its own.
But the six-passenger, two-pilot SpaceShipTwo, that will carry the customers to space after WhiteKnightTwo releases it, must still be tested before flights can begin.
There have been three successful test flights of the mothership WhiteKnightTwo, which will launch the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo.
