10:03 a.m. ET, December 11, 2021
Michael Strahan goes to space on Blue Origin mission
From CNN's Michael Ballaban
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, has sent "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan, the daughter of famed astronaut Alan Shepard, and four paying customers on a supersonic joy ride to the edge of space.
The crew took off aboard one of Blue Origin’s suborbital space tourism rockets, called New Shepard, at 10:01 a.m. ET from the company’s launch facilities near the rural town of Van Horn, Texas, where Bezos owns a sprawling ranch.
Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father Alan Shepard went on a suborbital flight in 1961 and later walked on the moon, rode alongside investors Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, and Lane Bess, as well as Bess' adult child, Cameron Bess — all of whom paid for their seats.
Blue Origin said that Strahan and Shepard Churchley are flying as "honorary guests" and did not pay for their tickets.
The trip will take 10 minutes from takeoff to landing.
The crew will experience roughly three minutes of weightlessness at the top of their flight path before their capsule deploys parachutes to slow their descent and touch back down near their Texas launch site.
This was the third crewed mission for Blue Origin, following actor William Shatner’s flight in October and Bezos’ own trip in July.