Daughter Of First American Man In Space To Be A Part Of Next Blue Origin Space Flight

Who is Laura Shepard Churchley? The daughter of the first American man to travel to will be following her father's legacy soon. Alan Shepherd was only the second person to visit space after a Soviet Union astronaut. Shepherd had been a part of a 15-minute space flight on May 5, 1961. His older daughter Laura Shepard Churchley is all set to travel to space as one of the passengers on Blue Origin's next flight.

Laura Shepard Churchley is the daughter of NASA Astronaut Alan Shepard who became the first American in space after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. After sixty years Laura will be taking the flight to space, which is named after Alan Shepard and is called New Shepard.

The announcement of this travel plan was made by Jeff Bezos's space company on November 23. The flight will be launched on December 9 from Blue Origin's base in West Texas, the United States.

The flight will have Churchley and Michael Strahan, the co-host of Good Morning America as guests along with four customers who have paid for the ticket. This flight will make a 10-minute round trip to the internationally recognised boundary of space, which is known as the Karman line.

It is the most popularly accepted line which is 100 kilometers above mean sea level, but the United States uses the 80 kilometers as the cut-off point. This sort of line is required in space to avoid disputes and keep track of space activities. The origin of which lies in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

The flight will have four more people other than Churchley and Strahan, which includes the Space Industry Executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, Investor Evan Dick, the founder of Bess Venture Lane Bess and Cameron Bess- who are set to become the first parent-child pair to fly in space.

Speaking about following her father into space, Churchley said, "It's kind of fun for me to say an original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard," adding, "I'm very proud of my father's legacy."

Who is Laura Shepard Churchley?

Churchley is the chair of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Board of Trustees that promotes education in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and raises funds for college students. She is the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who was also the fifth man to walk on the Moon.

Born to Alan and his wife Louise, Laura was born in 1947 and has a younger sister, Julie. Churchley's parents adopted their third daughter Alice, who was born to Louise's sister Julie after her death. Laura attended boarding school in St Louis and was 13-year-old when her father became the second man in space.

Image Credit: Daily Mail

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