The suborbital trip lasted ten minutes. 60 years after Alan Shepard's flight, his daughter also went to the Cosmos with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in Space, experienced the same thrill as her father 60 years after the man's flight. The suborbital trip lasted only ten minutes and was made possible thanks to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. The woman left on board the capsule dedicated to the American who first went to the Cosmos: the New Shepard. With her traveled former football player Michael Strahan and paying passengers Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, Lane Bess and Cameron Bess. The group reached an altitude of 106 meters.
Laura Shepard Churchley's Space Flight and Bezos' New Records
The New Shepard departed from the launch site located in West Texas, not far from the town of Van Horn. The mission was called NS-19 and ended successfully: the capsule returned to Earth by braking with the help of three parachutes. To receive the space tourists on their return was the founder of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos. The flight also marked some records: Strahan became the tallest person ever to go into space, with his meter and 96 centimeters of height, as well as the first black person to face a suborbital flight; Laura Shepard was the first daughter of an astronaut to face a space flight, while with Lane and Cameron Bess for the first time father and son went together in Space. It was not disclosed how much the space tourists paid for their tickets on the Blue Origin capsule.
Laura Shepard Churchley's comment
"I find it funny to say that an original Shepard flies on the New Shepard," Laura joked to comment on the experience beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Speaking instead of her father, she said she was "very proud of the legacy he left me: he was the first American in space and the fifth man to go to the Moon, as well as the only man to play golf on the Moon." Alan Shepard had made a suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 capsule, reaching an altitude of more than 180 kilometers (110 miles) on May 5, 1961.
The NS-19 mission brings to 28 the number of space tourists who have gone beyond Earth's atmosphere to date, including both those who have gone into orbit and those who have arrived on the International Space Station. For the New Shepard it was the third launch with men on board, after the one that last July had among the four passengers Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark, and the one that on October 13 had finally brought among the stars the Canadian actor William Shatner, famous for having played Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
Stefania Bernardini