“TOUCHDOWN now has a new meaning!” After landing, he tweeted “Touchdown has a new meaning now!”
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket took off from West Texas. It flew for a mere 10 minutes with two VIP guests, and four paying customers. The capsule was able to reach an altitude of 66miles (106km), giving them a brief moment of weightlessness before it parachuted into the desert. The booster returned to land also successfully.
It took five minutes and fifty miles (187 km) less than Alan Shepard’s Mercury flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, May 5, 1961. Laura Shepard Churchley was his eldest daughter. She took with her a small piece of his Freedom 7 capsule and mementos from Apollo 14. Her dad also brought along some golf balls.
Strahan, a co-host on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” gush with excitement throughout the week. Strahan took his Super Bowl ring along with the retired New York Giants jersey number No. 92. Bezos kept a football aboard that will be donated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Strahan declared that he was ready to return once more after he got out of the capsule. Bezos laughed and said he would have to purchase his own ticket next year.
Strahan later posted a video in which he called the experience surrealist and unbelievable. This is all I have to say. Wow!”
Bezos painted “Light this Candle” on the bridge of the launch tower near Van Horn. This was a borrowing from Alan Shepard, who complained about delays from Freedom 7: “Why don’t you solve your problem and light this candle?”
Shepard Churchley, who was a volunteer for Blue Origin’s third passenger flight, borrowed the phrase of her father and yelled “Let’s light that candle!” as she waited for takeoff. Two days of fierce wind kept her flight afloat.
She is the head of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s board of trustees.
Shepard Churchley stated that he thought about Daddy’s coming down and realized that Daddy didn’t get to enjoy all of the things he was getting to enjoy. He was working. He was the one who had to do it. “I went up for the ride!”
As space tourism takes off, Saturday’s launch will be the last of this year’s private U.S. companies. Virgin Galactic launched it in July by sending Richard Branson, its billionaire founder, up to the launch pad. Blue Origin followed closely by SpaceX and SpaceX. The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it would no longer identify commercial astronauts or issue wings.
Bezos was present at Amazon’s July debut launch. He founded the company six years prior to Blue Origin. In October, William Shatner, actor and Captain James Kirk from TV’s original Star Trek, was the second. Leonard Nimoy’s late daughter sent a necklace featuring a “Vulcan Salute” charm to commemorate her father, Mr. Spock.
The first parent-child combination, Lane Bess and Cameron, were among the four space tourists who paid unspecified amounts of money. Voyager Space CEO Dylan Taylor, and Evan Dick, investor are also flying.
Blue Origin dedicated Saturday’s launch to Glen de Vries. He was a co-launcher with Shatner but died in a plane accident one month later.
