Friends gather in Staffordshire to watch Olympian's space flight

Friends of astronaut Jon Goodwin gathered at a church in Staffordshire to watch his space flight.

Members of the North Staffordshire Parkinson's Support Group watched him take off for the edge of space on the Virgin Galactic rocket plane.

The 80-year-old Olympian, who has Parkinson's, said he had feared his disease would stop him travelling.

"He may have Parkinson's but Parkinson's doesn't have him," friend Ana Palazon said.

"His attitude towards life is that he keeps going, he keeps having objectives, personal objectives, and he's such a physically active and daring person."

Mr Goodwin, a champion canoeist, joined Keisha Schahaff and Ana Mayers - the first mother-daughter duo to travel to the edge of space - on the trip where they saw Earth from an altitude of around 85km (52 miles).

Ms Palazon said there was "big clapping" when the rocket was let go by the mothership, and that people cheered and cried when Mr Goodwin appeared on screen.

Another friend to watch the flight in the church in Newcastle-under-Lyme was Lorraine Vernon who said seeing him jet off was "amazing".

"We all love him so much here in our group... He's wonderful. He gives everybody inspiration and he tries to encourage them to do things," she said.

"He's kept [having a ticket] to himself for a while.

"Then all of a sudden he went missing and we said: 'Where have you been?' And he said: 'Oh, I've been testing my space suit' - then it all came out and we were all rooting for him."

Ms Vernon said he had been very excited about the trip.

"But I think we're more excited than them though," she added.

At a press conference after returning to earth, the group spoke about their experience.

Mr Goodwin said he took a picture of his grandson Sebastian as well as four rings which belonged to his wife with him. He had the badge from a canoe club sewn onto his flight suit.

He described the flight as "a completely surreal experience".

"The most impressive thing was looking at Earth from space. The pure clarity was very moving," he said.

"Without a doubt the most exciting day of my life."

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