Blue Origin NS-19 was a crewed

New Shepard New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical land ...

sub-orbital spaceflight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital re ...

mission operated by

Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...

that launched on 11 December 2021. The flight was scheduled to launch on 9 December 2021, later delayed to 11 December 2021. The

mission patch A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term ''space patch'' is mostly applied to an emblem desi ...

of the flight also featured the initials of

Glen de Vries Glen de Vries (June 29, 1972 – November 11, 2021) was an American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Medidata Solutions. Early life and education De Vries grew up in New York (s ...

who died in a plane crash a month after flying on Blue Origin's previous crewed flight NS-18.

Crew

The NS-19 crew was nicknamed the "Original Six". The crew of six included Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the first U.S. astronaut in space, as well the namesake for the New Shepard spaceflight program,

Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he beca ...

, and

Michael Strahan Michael T. Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the Nation ...

, a Hall of Fame former

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

defensive end, as well as a co-anchor of ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' and analyst for ''

Fox NFL Sunday ''Fox NFL Sunday'' is an American sports television program broadcast on the Fox television network. The show debuted on September 4, 1994, and serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ...

''; both as guests of Blue Origin. Paying passengers included executive Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder

Lane Bess Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a venture capitalist known for his work in technology. He has served as principal and founder of family fund Bess Ventures and Advisory, LLC, a strategic management, investment and marketing services firm, ...

and his child, Cameron. The latter became the first parent and child on the same

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...

. Cameron Bess became the youngest American at age 23 and the first

pansexual , meaning "all" , definition = Sexual or romantic attraction to people regardless of gender , classification = Sexual identity , parent = Bisexuality , synonyms = , associated_terms = Polysexual, queer, heterofl ...

person and the first member of the

furry fandom The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes. The term ...

to fly to space.

References

{{Blue Origin Space tourism 2021 in spaceflight Test spaceflights Aviation history of the United States Suborbital human spaceflights 2021 in Texas 2021 in aviation December 2021 events in the United States New Shepard missions