Pakistan flag taken to space

ASTRONAUT VILLAGE, West Texas: Global explorer and Pakistan’s Honorary Goodwill Ambassador, Vanessa O’Brien has taken Pakistan’s flag to space earlier this week when she accompanied five other space participants on Blue Origin’s NS-22 that passed the Kármán line into outer space and reached an apogee of 351,232 feet MSL (107 km), says a press release.

Her max ascent velocity hit 3,603 km/h, hitting 5.2 max g-forces before parachutes were deployed to slow down the crew capsule for landing. This flight makes Ms O’Brien the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air — her sixth Guinness World Record — thereby completing the Explorer’s Trifecta. O’Brien carried Pakistan’s flag during each of these extreme endeavours over five years, to the summit of K2 in 2017, then 10,925 meters deep (to the bottom of the Marianas Trench) in 2020, and now to Space (passing the Kármán line to 107km) in 2022.

Vanessa said she was delighted to have made this suborbital flight in time to mark the 75th anniversary of Pakistan’s freedom. She also hoped Pakistan’s flag flies higher and higher each year with pride and wished all Pakistanis a happy Independence Day.

The space trip made on August 4 was historic in a sense as it was for the first time that Pakistan’s flag was carried into space by anyone. The flag was presented to Vanessa by Hassan Bin Aftab, director and founder of Pakistan Analytica, a non-profit organisation endeavouring to promote the true spirit and face of Pakistan internationally.