The daughter of the first American in space has followed in her father’s footsteps today. She and five other tourists boarded a 10-minute spaceflight operated by Blue Origin, the space company of American billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Alan Shepard (1923-1998) became the first American to reach space on May 5, 1961. His flight lasted 15 minutes and came 23 days after the flight of the Russian Soviet Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. He was also one of twelve people who walked on the moon. By the way, the Blue Origin launcher was christened New Shepard in honor of Alan Shepard.
Sixty years after that historic flight, it’s now her daughter Laura’s turn to go into space. The 74-year-old was invited to the trip in Texas, along with Good Morning America host Michael Strahan. In addition, there were four propelled travelers in the space: businessmen Dylan Taylor and Evan Dick, and father and son Lynn and Cameron Pace. How much they paid, Blue Origin did not reveal.
This was the company’s third cruise spaceflight, and the first with a full six-passenger capacity. There were four passengers on previous flights. Bezos himself attended his company’s first touring trip. The second included William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk on the Star Trek series.
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