Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the late Alan Shepard, sought to repeat her well-known father’s historic 1961 spaceflight.
VAN HORN, Texas — A Colorado lady who sought to repeat her father’s historic 1961 spaceflight has returned safely to Earth as a passenger on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Evergreen resident Laura Shepard Churchley is the eldest daughter of late astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the second particular person and the primary American to journey into area. She took alongside a tiny piece of his Freedom 7 capsule, in addition to mementos from his journey to the moon in 1971. She additionally packed some golf balls, a nod to her father famously enjoying golf on the moon’s floor.
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They’re now the primary father and daughter ever to fly to area.
“I considered Daddy coming down and thought, gosh he did not even get to get pleasure from any of what I am attending to get pleasure from,” Shepard Churchley stated after landing Saturday. “He was working. He needed to do it himself. I went up for the journey!”
Shepard Churchley informed 9NEWS in November that she had obtained a name from Blue Origin, the area firm based by Jeff Bezos, a few months earlier asking her to hitch their mission on board the spacecraft named in her father’s honor.
“It is sort of applicable to have an actual Shepard fly on the New Shepard,” she stated with amusing as she seemed ahead to her flight.
Shepard Churchley, who heads the board of trustees for the Astronaut Scholarship Basis, was one among two honorary company on the flight. The opposite was former NFL star and present Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan.
4 others paid for his or her seats together with Denver area business govt Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess and his son, Cameron Bess.
Saturday’s launch marks the final of a number of this 12 months by personal U.S. corporations. Virgin Galactic was the primary to succeed in area in July, adopted by Blue Origin and SpaceX.
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The Related Press contributed to this report.
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