Michael Strahan was set to take a Blue Origin flight into space, but it has been delayed due to weather conditions. ESPN reports that the flight was scheduled to take place on Thursday but, ahead of launch time, the space travel company run by Jeff Bezos announced that it has been postponed until Saturday. In addition to Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley — the oldest daughter of America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard — will also be on the flight, as well as four paying customers.
This Blue Origin flight will be the third manned space launch for the company. The first took Bezos himself up into space, and the second had none other than the legendary Captain Kirk, William Shatner, as a passenger. On the eve of the big flight, Blue Origin released a video of Shatner addressing the big event and, in the clip, he spoke about how monumental this moment is. “We’re just at the beginning, but how miraculous that beginning is. How extraordinary it is to be part of that beginning,” He added, “It looks like there’s a great deal of curiosity about this fictional character, Captain Kirk, going into space. So let’s go along with it and enjoy the ride.”
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Shatner also sat down with Gayle King on CBS Mornings before launch, telling the host, “I want to see space, I want to see the Earth, I want to see what we need to do to save Earth.” He continued, “I want to have a perspective that hasn’t been shown to me before. That’s what I’m interested in seeing.” In addition to Shatner, microbiologist Glen de Vries and Chris Boshuizen — founder of Earth-observation company Planet Labs — are also on the 10-minute flight.
“I’m very excited,” Shatner went on to say while speaking to King. “I’ve waited my entire life to do this. I think it’s pretty amazing that 2021 is the year that really the human race is finally starting to go to space at scale.” He added, “I think we’ll look back at this date 50 years from now and go, wow, this really was a special time in history, just like the Wright brothers, when people started flying passenger planes. It’s really exciting to be part of history and I can’t wait to fly.”
De Vries, who is a private pilot in his spare time, shared his thoughts as well, saying, “I am actually looking forward to seeing the Earth from a different perspective than I ever had before.” de Vries added, “I just can’t wait to stare out that window and feel differently about humanity and our planet than I’ve ever had the opportunity to before.”
