Just over 60 years since her dad became the first American in space, Laura Shepard Churchley will be among six passengers on a Blue Origin flight that will give her a taste of what Alan Shepard experienced on his Freedom 7 flight in 1961.
Laura is his eldest daughter, and she serves as chair of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Board of Trustees, which raises funds for college students and provides mentorship for STEM-related scholars.
“It’s kind of fun for me to say an original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard,” Churchley said in a video posted to Blue Origin’s Twitter account.
Named for the pioneer astronaut, the New Shepard rocket and capsule’s flight from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility is slated for Dec. 9, and will be the third to fly with passengers. Along for the ride will also be “Good Morning America” anchor and former NFL star Michael Strahan as well as four other civilians.
It marks the first full flight for the space tourism company. Its previous two missions with humans took only four. Company founder Jeff Bezos was among the first set in July while TV and film star William Shatner, who played Capt. Kirk on “Star Trek” flew in October.
Dubbed NS-19, Strahan and Shepard are honorary guests, while paying customers include Chairman & CEO of Voyager Space Dylan Taylor, Managing Member of Dick Holdings, LLC, Evan Dick, principal and founder of Bess Ventures and Advisory, Lane Bess, as well as his son, Cameron Bess.
Lane and Cameron will become the first father-child duo to fly into space, marking another first served up by Blue Origin. Shatner became the oldest person to fly into space at age 90 while the first flight brought up the youngest person, Oliver Daemen, who was 18 years old at the time.
The Blue Origin flights last about 11 minutes, allowing passengers to rocket up to more than 100,000 km, which is past the Karman line, the internationally recognized altitude for someone having gone into space.
Alan Shepard’s flight on May 5, 1961 in a Mercury spacecraft was also a suborbital flight that lasted only 15 minutes. Shepard became the second human in space following the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin’s flight less than a month earlier. Shepard went on to fly to and walk on the moon 10 years later as part of Apollo 14.
Strahan. who won the Super Bowl as a member of the New York Giants, just turned 50 on Sunday. He will be raising money for The Boys & Girls Club through the flight. He made the announcement on Tuesday morning’s airing of “Good Morning America.”
“I have been preparing for this,” Strahan said. “Just two weeks ago, I began preparations measuring for my flight suit, and since I clock in at 6-foot-5, Blue Origin had me test out a flight seat.”
Strahan will become the tallest person to travel into space, surpassing 6-foot, 4-inch tall NASA astronaut Jim Wetherbee.
Blue Origin has not revealed the price tag for its New Shepard flights, but both Bezos’ company and Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic have made trips into the edge of space this year.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has already launched the first all-civilian crew into an orbital mission with the Inspiration4 flight in September, while it will also ferry up four more civilians to the International Space Station in a partnership with Axiom Space next February.
It’s been just over 20 years since billionaire Dennis Tito became the first space tourist flying to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz.
Since Gagarin’s flight 60 years ago, 601 people have made it into space.
Blue Origin’s pace along with other private ventures will see that number increase dramatically in the next few years. This is the third New Shepard flight with passengers, and sixth in 2021. It will be the 19th mission for the spacecraft overall.
“This mission furthers the company’s vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth,” according to a statement from Blue Origin.
