Michael Strahan, Alan Shepard's daughter, and four others rocket to the edge of space

The group blasted off aboard Blue Origin's suborbital space tourism rocket at 9:01 am CT from the company's launch facilities near the rural town of Van Horn, Texas, where Bezos owns a sprawling ranch, and took a supersonic, 10-minute flight that reached more than 60 miles above the Earth's surface before parachuting to a landing."I wanna go back," he said."The Gs...it's not a face lift, it's a face drop. I know what I'm going to look like at 85.

Strahan announced his plans to join the flight during a segment on Good Morning America last month, noting that Blue Origin had him measured for his flight suit and had him test out one of the New Shepard capsule's seats to ensure he'd fit. Orbital rockets need to drum up enough power to hit at least 17,000 miles per hour, or what's known as orbital velocity, essentially giving a spacecraft enough energy to continue whipping around the Earth rather than being dragged immediately back down by gravity.

The New Shepard capsule then deploys a large plume of parachutes to slow its descent to less than 20 miles per hour before it hits the ground.This flight marked the third of what Blue Origin hopes will be many space tourism launches, carrying wealthy customers to the edge of space.

Taylor, who rode alongside Strahan and Shepard on today's flight, told CNN Business that he also participated in the auction but didn't win. Blue Origin later reached out to offer him a seat, however. He declined to say how much he ultimately paid for his ticket, noting that Blue Origin asks its passengers to sign non-disclosure agreements that preclude customers from talking about certain aspects of the launch.

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