Craig Mackay, a self-described ex-adrenaline junkie and astronaut hopeful, believes his trip into space will be the pinnacle of his thrill-seeking endeavours.
A longtime resident of Salmon Arm, Mackay is no stranger to the extreme. Having worked as a scuba-diving instructor and national skydiving team leader, space may not seem like too big a leap. Currently, Mackay is 600th on the list of people waiting to visit the final frontier through the world’s first commercial space flight program, Virgin Galactic.
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Mackay has been dreaming of space flight since he was a child and started thinking more seriously about taking the trip a few years ago.
Despite being 600 on the waitlist, and medical tests ahead of him, Mackay is still excited at the prospect.
“Just being able to do it, just being one of not many to be able to go to space,” Mackay said.
The trip consists of two stages. Passengers ride in the space shuttle which is flown to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere by a jet plane. The shuttle is disengaged from the plane where it then ignites its own boosters, propelling it past the surly bonds of Earth and into space for an eight minute flight.
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