Michael Strahan has returned to Earth after joining Jeff Bezos’ rocket company on a trip to space.
On Saturday, Michael and five other crew members, including Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, took flight around 9:45 am. The lift-off for the New Shepard’s suborbital flight was live-streamed on YouTube. The Blue Origin rocket took off into space from Bezos’ ranch near Van Horn, Texas.
The trip was 10-minutes long and included the crew being weightless for roughly 4 minutes before returning to Earth.
Strahan describes the flight as “unreal” and says he “wants to go back” after landing in Texas.
Michael had a strict weight limit when bringing items along for the ride. However, Strahan decided to bring a pack of mementos, his Super Bowl XLII Ring, a lucky $2 bill, a necklace from his girlfriend’s late grandmother & 12 shell casings from the 12-gun salute performed at his father funeral.
According to the Blue Origin website, the space vehicle could hold up to six passengers at a time. The New Shepard spacecraft is also “fully autonomous,” meaning there isn’t a pilot. The vehicle was “designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of space.”
Michael shared his excitement in an Instagram video, saying the experience was surreal and unbelievable. The former NFL player made a joke captioning the video, “touchdown has a new meaning now.”
