🚀Launchpad

Franz Haider

Virgin Galactic

Status
Occasional Spaceflight
Agency
Virgin Galactic
Nationality
American, Austrian

For Austrian entrepreneur and world traveler Franz Haider, the dream of becoming an astronaut started at the tender age of 7, when he saw the Apollo 11 Moon landing. His mother cautioned him, however, that his home country had no space program. But his desire only grew stronger and, at the age of 27 while on a trip to New Zealand, he had an epiphany: “We had reached the farthest point from our homeland, and I was thinking with a friend about how to top that. There was only one thing we could think of: A trip to space or to the Moon.” After waiting 16 years for his spaceflight, Franz says traveling on ‘Galactic 06’ was his grandest adventure yet. “I have always been fascinated by all that our beautiful planet has to offer, and seeing it from space has been profoundly life changing.” His spacesuit displays the Austria and USA flags. On his flight, Franz carried a photo of his 3-year-old son.