Blue Origin’s third crewed mission is scheduled to launch on Saturday (Dec. 11).
The firm’s New Shepard spacecraft will ship GMA host and former NFL star Michael Strahan and 5 different individuals to suborbital space on the mission, which is named NS-19.
Liftoff is focused for 9:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) on Saturday, although that might change attributable to climate or technical points. You can watch the motion by way of BlueOrigin.com and right here at Space.com, if potential. The firm additionally plans mission updates by means of @BlueOrigin on Twitter.
If previous missions are any indication, Blue Origin will even maintain a press convention post-flight, which Space.com will even placed on our web site if potential.
NS-19 would be the first mission that fills all six seats on the New Shepard spacecraft. (The earlier two crewed flights every despatched 4 individuals up and again). Below is a listing of the opposite individuals within the crew in addition to Strahan.
In pictures: Blue Origin’s 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos
- Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, the eldest daughter of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard. Shepard was the primary NASA astronaut to fly in space, and the New Shepard spacecraft is called after him.
- Dylan Taylor, 51, chairman and CEO of the space exploration agency Voyager Space, founding father of the nonprofit Space for Humanity, and co-founding patron of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
- Evan Dick, age not disclosed, an engineer and investor who’s a volunteer pilot for Starfighters Aerospace.
- Lane Bess, age not disclosed, principal and founding father of a technology-focused enterprise fund known as Bess Ventures and Advisory.
- Cameron Bess, age not disclosed, who’s a baby of Lane. They stream selection content material on Twitch underneath the alias MeepsKitten.
Strahan and Churchley are flying as friends of Blue Origin, simply as “Mercury 13” pilot Wally Funk and “Star Trek” actor William Shatner did on the primary and second New Shepard crewed flights, respectively. The different 4 passengers are paying for his or her seats; Blue Origin has not but publicly disclosed a value for purchasers.
A typical 11-minute flight on Blue Origin sees the rocket launch and land autonomously, with the spacecraft additionally flying autonomously and touchdown underneath parachutes minutes after the rocket. Crew members will fly far above the Kármán line, an internationally acknowledged boundary of space that lies 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth’s floor.
New Shepard has carried out 18 flights previous to date, however most of these earlier efforts had been uncrewed assessments or payload analysis flights. Blue Origin continues to be recruiting prospects keen to pay for experiments in microgravity, together with super-rich vacationers who will pay for a journey to suborbital space.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
