A Blue Origin flight due to include a TV personality and the daughter of the first American to travel to space has been delayed until Saturday because of forecasts of bad weather.
The flight was originally scheduled for Thursday but winds forecast for today and Friday mean it will now aim to lift off on Saturday at 8.45am local time from west Texas, Blue Origin said.
Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father, Alan Shepard, in 1961 became the first American to travel to space, will be one of six passengers on this third crewed flight by Jeff Bezos's space company.
The rocket is called New Shepard in honour of the late Shepard.
Television personality Michael Strahan, a former American football player who co-hosts Good Morning America, will be a guest on the voyage – a 10-minute trip to the internationally recognised boundary of space and back down again.
The other four crew members are paying customers: space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess and Cameron Bess.
Lane and Cameron Bess will become the first parent-child pair to fly in space.
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Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos embraces veteran aviator Wally Funk after Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard craft capsule returned from space on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. -
Jeff Bezos, Funk and and gap-year student Oliver Daemen, 18, disembark after Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard capsule returned from space. -
Jeff Bezos disembarks after the flight. -
New Shepard touches down on Earth. -
New Shepard approaches the ground. -
The capsule carrying Jeff Bezos and three crew members returns to Texas by parachute. -
The booster rocket returns to the launch pad. -
The rocket lifts off. -
The launch viewed from far. -
The rocket is launched on the world’s first unpiloted suborbital flight. -
It took off from Blue Origin’s launch site, near Van Horn in western Texas, US. -
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is launched from its spaceport. -
The rocket lift-off. -
The launch pad. Blue Origin’s first crewed mission was an 11-minute flight from Texas and back. Reaching an altitude of 106 kilometres, it coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the first Moon landing. -
People watch on a television screen as the rocket sits on the launch pad. -
The crew members prepare for the flight. -
The crew members prepare for the flight. -
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, rings a bell before boarding the flight. -
This still image taken from video by Blue Origin shows Funk, Daemen and the Bezos brothers before they leave for the flight. -
A monitor in a zone reserved for the media shows Wally Funk being interviewed. -
This still image taken from video by Blue Origin shows Funk, Jeff and Mark Bezos, and Daemen as they ascend the crew tower for the flight. -
This still image taken from video by Blue Origin shows, from left, Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen as they travel to the launch pad. -
Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen pose in an undated photograph.
