Next Blue Origin space tourism flight will launch ‘Space Gal’ Emily Calandrelli
We now know who’s going up on Blue Origin’s next suborbital space tourism mission.
The six crewmembers for the flight include TV host and best-selling author Emily Calandrelli, known as “The Space Gal,” as well as two repeat customers, Blue Origin announced in a statement today (Nov. 15).
The company has not yet revealed a target date for the mission, which is called NS-28 because it will be the 28th overall flight of Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard vehicle. NS-28 will lift off from Launch Site One, the company’s West Texas spaceport.
NS-28 will carry Calandrelli, Marc Hagle, Sharon Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell and Henry (Hank) Wolfond to and from suborbital space.
Related: ‘The Space Gal’ Emily Calandrelli opens up about her coming Blue Origin flight (interview)
Calandrelli is an MIT-educated engineer, science communicator and author. “With the premiere of ‘Xploration Outer Space’ (2014-present), she became the first American woman to be the sole host of a nationally broadcast science series,” Blue Origin wrote in today’s statement. “Through her activism, she helped write a bill to improve the TSA’s treatment of breastfeeding mothers and started a campaign which improved parental leave in the aerospace industry.”
The Hagles are a married couple who flew together on NS-20 in March 2022. Marc is president and CEO of the property development company Tricor International, and Sharon founded the education nonprofit SpaceKids Global.
Litteral is a risk management professional in the finance industry. He won his seat on NS-28 through the “Whatnot to the Moon” giveaway, which was sponsored by the livestream shopping platform Whatnot.
Russell is an entrepreneur who founded the company InfoHOA, according to Blue Origin. Wolfond is chairman and CEO of Bayshore Capital in Toronto.
Blue Origin, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has launched eight crewed New Shepard missions to date. These flights last a total of 10 to 12 minutes and carry people above the 62-mile-high (100 kilometers) Kármán Line, which many (but not all) people consider to be the boundary between Earth and space.
Blue Origin has not revealed its ticket prices. Its main competitor in the suborbital space tourism industry, Virgin Galactic, currently charges $450,000 per seat for a ride aboard its rocket-powered space plane.
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