Michael Strahan is heading to space on the third human-crew flight of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft. And he’ll do it soon.
“In less than three weeks, on Dec. 9, I will be blasting off in the next Blue Origin space launch,” Strahan said Tueday on “Good Morning America,” prompting co-host George Stephanopoulos to interject, “You’re a brave man, Michael.”
Strahan had hosted “GMA’s” coverage of Blue Origin’s first manned flight, which included Bezos, on July 20. At the time, he called it “magnificent” and told Bezos that he was “enamored by what you’ve done.”
The TV host said Blue Origin approached him and asked him whether he wanted to be a crew member. Next thing he knew, he was at the company’s training facility in Van Horn, Texas, getting fitted for a flight suit and a new flight seat that would work with his 6-foot-5 frame.
In a week and a half, he’ll head back there for training and safety briefings, and then it’ll be time to head into the wild blue yonder.
“I think being there at the first launch, it really was mind-blowing. Innovators have been risk takers … I just wanted to be a part of it,” Strahan told his co-hosts.
Traveling with the “GMA” star on the New Shepard spacecraft will be space-industry philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, father-and-son team Lane and Cameron Bess and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space.
“I’m excited to get down there to Texas to the Blue Origin training facility and just enjoy the whole process,” Strahan said.
The trip to suborbital space takes just 11 minutes and sends passengers 62 miles above the surface of the Earth. So far, Blue Origin has been tight-lipped as to the price of a ticket.
A previous flight included 90-year-old “Star Trek” actor William Shatner, who tearfully declared himself “overwhelmed” by the experience. “It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death, and oh, my God,” Shatner said.
Entrepreneur Glen de Vries, a passenger along with Shatner on that flight in mid-October, died in a plane crash in New Jersey earlier this month.
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