Skip to Content

Michael Strahan’s Blue Origin space flight pushed back to Saturday in Van Horn

VAN HORN, Texas -- Michael Strahan is still going to space, but he needs to wait a little bit longer.

Blue Origin announced Wednesday that the ABC "Good Morning America" co-anchor's scheduled flight aboard New Shepard was rescheduled from Thursday to Saturday due to forecasted winds.

Launch is now scheduled for Saturday at 7:45 a.m. MT/8:45 a.m. CT.

Strahan will join Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, on the mission aboard the New Shepard, a spacecraft named after her father and the first American in space.

"I've done a lot of training camp -- but this is definitely some training like no other down here," he said after more than a decade reporting to training camp in the NFL.

The Blue Origin flight, the company headed by Jeff Bezos, will also carry four paying customers and will be the third by the New Shepard craft this year to shuttle humans to space.

The 10-minute flight, five minutes less than Alan Shepard's 1961 Mercury flight, will launch from West Texas carrying six people, two more than the previous two flights this year with humans aboard.

Similar to previous jaunts, Strahan's flight is likely to include about three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curvature of the Earth. Passengers are subjected to nearly 6 G's, or six times the force of Earth's gravity, as the capsule descends.

Strahan said he's bringing several prized positions onboard.

"I am taking -- my retired Giants jersey, my Hall of Fame ring, my Super Bowl ring, some special watches and the most special thing to me when my father passed away and had his military funeral," the shell casings that he said were fired from the gun, "I'm taking those with me to outer space."

Strahan continued, "My dad was a paratrooper and, you know, hopefully I'm staying in the ship. He jumped out of planes but it makes me feel closer to him so I love my dad and that's for my pops."

He added that he's bringing his grandfather's pocket watch that was given to him by his mom to get repaired, but Strahan thought, "I had to keep it to bring it with me to space before I get it repaired."

Article Topic Follows: Race to Space

Jump to comments ↓

Author Profile Photo

ABC News

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

KVIA ABC 7 is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.

Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here

If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here.

Skip to content