Michael Strahan can’t wait to go back to space.
Former NFL football player and “Good Morning America” co-initiator launch into space aboard the New Shepard rocket in orbit of Blue Origin on Saturday morning (December 11) and seemed to enjoy every second, based on the smile on his face after landing.
“I want to come back,” said Strahan Blue origin founder Jeff Bezos after disembarking from the New Shepard spacecraft at its landing pad near the company’s Launch Site One outside of Van Horn, Texas.
Strahan, 50, and five other passengers performed Blue Origin’s NS-19 mission on board New Shepards Saturday, spent a few minutes of weightlessness and had spectacular views of Earth from 65 miles before returning to Earth under their capsule’s parachute.
“Touchdown now has a new meaning!!!” Strahan, a former NY Giants defense, wrote on Twitter after the flight. “Wow…that’s amazing!”
Video summary: Watch Blue Origin launch Michael Strahan into space
Joining Strahan on the flight was Laura Shepard Churchley, his eldest daughter Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Four paying passengers rounded up the crew.
The Blue Origin live broadcast showed Strahan, a former NY Giants defense, enthusiastically thumbing up from a window while waiting for the teams to recover, along with a large group of wise men and crew. , approaching the spacecraft in the desert near Van Horn. Strahan’s enthusiasm continued even after emerging from the first step of the New Shepard capsule RSS that carried Blue Origin passengers into space.
Strahan said in a video with this Twitter post. He also made enthusiastic comments for those watching the moments after landing.
Than: Blue Origin Launch With GMA Neo Michael Strahan Explains
TOUCHDOWN now has a new meaning!!! OH…. that was amazing!!! 🚀🚀 @blueorigin @SMAC pic.twitter.com/xz54JT49f3December 11, 2021
Strahan told a small group of people gathered near the spacecraft after landing, including Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, “OK, here’s the problem.”
Strahan went on to talk about the gravity his crew experienced during launch and landing. “I know what I will look like at 85,” he joked.
Strahan said he urged teammates to go back and watch a Blue Origin train launch from the ground, which he did earlier this year when the company made the first crewed New Shepard flight carrying Jeff. Bezos, brother Mark among his crew. At the time, Strahan was reporting on the launch of Good Morning America.
Saturday’s launch marks Blue Origin’s third crewed flight. The company debuted “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and three others on New Shepard in October.
But Saturday’s flight marked Blue Origin’s first flight carrying a full crew of six (the previous two flights only carried four people each), with space tourists calling themselves “The Originals”. Six”. This nickname is a nod to ‘s group “The Original Seven”. Mercury 7 Astronauts were selected by NASA in 1959, they were the agency’s first spaceflight.
On that NASA team was Alan Shepard, Churchley’s Father. She was about 14 years old when her father became the first American in space in 1961.
“He wasn’t even enjoying it, like I was. He was working,” Churchley, 74, told viewers of the landing site, during the Blue Origin broadcast.
“It’s all work,” Bezos, standing nearby, told Churchley.
“He’s got to do it himself. I’m with him for the ride!” Churchley responded, to which Bezos joked, “He doesn’t make a mess.”
Churchley and Strahan were invited guests of Blue Origin on the airline’s third crewed flight, reaching a maximum altitude of about 65.8 miles (106 km) above the ground during the 10-minute flight 13 seconds, according to company statistics.
The crew had about three minutes of weightlessness at the top of the suborbital parabolic flight, during which they uttered the scene on the broadcast, before they descended beneath the parachutes into the Texas desert.
The other four space pilots on the NS-19 mission, who are paying passengers, are:
- Dylan Taylor, 51, president and CEO of space exploration company Voyager Space, founder of the nonprofit Space for Humanity, and co-founder patron of the Space Flight Federation Commerce.
- Evan Dick, age undisclosed, an engineer and investor is a volunteer pilot for Starfirers Aerospace.
- Lane Bess, age undisclosed, principal and founder of a technology-focused venture fund called Bess Ventures and Advisory.
- Cameron Bess, age undisclosed, is Lane’s child. They stream diverse content on Twitch under the alias MeepsKitten.
Bezos personally drove some of the crew out to the launch pad in Rivian electric vans and gave each of them their Blue Origin astronaut wings. In a pre-launch video, Taylor said he expected the flight to be the experience of a lifetime. His teammates, it seems, agreed.
“I would do it again,” said Lane Bess as Bezos gave wings to entrepreneurs and investors. Bezos added that Bess would have to go back in line to book a flight.
Dick was the last to receive his wings and seemed delighted. In the Blue Origin video, the investor turned engineer said he had always hoped to work in the aerospace field when he was young, but never did.
“You made my dream come true,” Dick told Bezos.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow them on Twitter @Spacedotcom or above Facebook.
https://www.space.com/michael-strahan-blue-origin-space-launch-reaction Michael Strahan can’t get enough space after launching Blue Origin
