Blue Origin Launches Six more Private Astronauts

Credit: NASASpaceflight/Jack Beyer

On Saturday, December 11 at 10 am ET (15:00 UTC), Blue Origin launched six more private astronauts on the New Shephard rocket from their West Texas facility, Launch Site One near Van Horn, TX for New Shephard's 19th mission, NS-19. This was the third crewed mission of the New Shephard rocket, which can take both astronauts and research payloads above the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. Because of updated FAA Astronaut Wing rules, the crew will be the last New Shephard crew to receive Commercial Astronaut Wings, since the program will end on January 1, 2022. The mission is notable for four reasons:

- First time six people go above the Karman line at the same time since the space shuttle

- First time the New Shephard has a full crew of six people

- First time a parent flies with a child (adult child)

- The daughter of Alan Shephard (the first American in space) flew on this mission

The crew was:

- Laura Shephard Churchley, Guest, Alan Shephard's daughter

- Michael Strahan, Guest, co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America"

- Lane and Cameron Bess, paying customers

- Dylan Taylor, paying customer

- Evan Dick, paying customer

The launch was originally targeted for Thursday, so the crew arrived at the launch site for training the Thursday before. They were instructed on what to do in different anomaly scenarios and what to do before, during, and after the flight. Training concluded on Wednesday, but since the launch was delayed due to high winds, the crew had a break. On Friday, they even launched a New Shephard Estes model rocket!