- Michael Strahan, the host of “Morning Show,” will fly to space with five additional passengers on Blue Origin’s next crewed space voyage. On Saturday, Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, and four paying passengers, including parent-child duo Lane and Cameron Bess, will go to the skies onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship.
The launch of Blue Origin New Shepard was hosted by GMA anchor Michael Strahan:
New Shepard will launch from Launch Complex One in Van Horn, Texas, at 8:45 a.m. local time on the NS-19 mission. On Saturday (December 11 December 11), the launching of New Shepard’s third human-crewed mission will be broadcast live on BlueOrigin.com and, if possible, here at Space.com, with an expected start time of around 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT). Liftoff is set for 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT), although they might push it back due to weather or technical concerns.
New Shepard missions typically last 11 minutes, and based on previous crewed flights, a live stream with the astronauts will probably be available at BlueOrigin.com. If that happens, Blue Origin will almost certainly transmit it online, with Space.com perhaps simulcasting it. The business also uses Twitter to arrange mission updates under the handle @BlueOrigin.
New Shepard flights take the spacecraft well beyond the 62-mile (100-kilometer) Kármán line, which international agencies regard as the space limit. Virgin Galactic, a competitor, does not fly that high, and the two firms have fought over it.
The New Shepard rocket will land on its own at the launch site, and the crew capsule will drop under a parachute minutes later after soaring to space and detaching from the booster. Since the spacecraft is an automated technology, New Shepard’s third crewed space capsule will transport six passengers but no pilot. The following persons will make up the team:
Michael Strahan, 50, is a co-anchor on ABC’s Good Morning America, the host of “$100,000 Pyramid,” and a football commentator on “Fox NFL Sunday.” Strahan, who spent 15 seasons as a defensive end again for New York Giants, will become the second former NFL player to go into space. (The first, retired NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, spent two space shuttle missions in orbit for a total of 23 days.) Strahan, 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm) tall, will become the world’s tallest human to reach space.
Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, is the oldest child of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, who flew into space for the first time in 1961 and landed on the moon in 1970 on the Apollo 14 mission. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Churchley is the Astronaut Scholarship Association Trustees chairman. She is also an honorary consultant for the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire, and has served on the boards of many space organizations in the past and present.
Evan Dick, a volunteer pilot with Starfighters Aerospace and an engineer and investor of unknown age. Lane Bess is the creator and director of Bess Investments and Consulting, an innovation investment fund. He is a trustee at Carnegie Mellon University and developed and helped build Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks.
Lane has a child named Cameron Bess, who is unknown in age. According to Blue Origin, their mission is to reach out to audiences that are “frequently misunderstood.” “Cameron identifies as pansexual, is pleased to represent disadvantaged populations, and hopes their experience might inspire others,” Bess said in their biography.
Bess is the third recorded LGBTQ+ space flyer, following NASA’s Sally Ride (the first female astronaut from the United States) and Anne McClain, part of the “Artemis crew” of astronauts anticipated to do lunar missions.
New Shepard had completed 18 missions before this one, and the current mission is known as NS-19.
The most recent mission occurred on October 13, when New Shepard sent a four-person crew into orbit, including “Star Trek” captain William Shatner. Before it, on July 20, four people took part in Blue Origin’s first human spaceflight, including founder Jeff Bezos and Mercury 13 flier Wally Funk.
Alan Shepard, the first American to enter space in 1961, is honored with New Shepard. The spaceflight lasts around 11 minutes from launch to landing, regardless of cost.
Blue Origin uses the spacecraft’s “huge, gorgeous windows” and altitude as marketing techniques to entice the super-rich for future trips. Still, the business is also searching for clients ready to pay for microgravity studies.
Despite her parents, Shepard Churchley would likely only receive 14 hours of instruction over a few days to grasp basic flying and rescue techniques. Aside from that, the spaceship is self-flying. In an interview, Churchley noted, “It looks like the same thing that Daddy did, but it’s about five minutes shorter.”
Crews also don’t usually wear spacesuits, opting for blue jumpsuits with Blue Origin swag. Although this is not what experienced astronauts do, the unit may roam around within the capsule during the weightless phase and make remarks about the view.
Despite what Blue Origin claims about the view, the autonomy, and the shirtsleeve surrounds, flying on New Shepard is a high-risk sport. During launch and landing, passengers are exposed to hazards, including cabin depressurization and numerous forces of gravity (G-loads).
On September 30 September 30, a group of 21 Blue Origin workers (almost all of whom asked to remain anonymous) wrote an essay strongly criticizing the firm’s culture and safety practices. Stating that the company was pushing to launch quicker than was safe to begin accepting paying passengers sooner. The booster could not land as anticipated due to a hydraulics malfunction on the first flight, NS1.
Blue Origin takes off from a remote location in the West Texas desert, some 25 miles from Van Horn. The location is known as Launch Site One. It is heavily restricted during launches; even neighboring State Highway 54 is usually closed to the public, and only a few media members are permitted to visit.
Blue Origin offers a place to sign up for future trips on its website, but the timetable and cost are not currently accessible. The corporation is presumably working through a backlog of high-profile passengers first.
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