- Michael Strahan reveals daughter Isabella, 19, is back in the hospital after ‘rough’ setback amid brain cancer Daily Mail
- Isabella Strahan Details “Horrible” First Round of Chemotherapy Yahoo Entertainment
- Michael Strahan Says Daughter Isabella Is ‘Fighting Through’ Chemo for Brain Tumor: ‘It Is Tough to See’ PEOPLE
- Michael Strahan says daughter is ‘fighting through’ chemotherapy, hospitalization after brain tumor diagnosis ABC News
- Michael Strahan reveals daughter Isabella, 19, had a ‘rough’ setback amid brain cancer battle New York Post
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Michael Strahan to Miss “Good Morning America” for Another Week Due to ‘Personal Family Matters’ – Yahoo Entertainment
- Michael Strahan to Miss “Good Morning America” for Another Week Due to ‘Personal Family Matters’ Yahoo Entertainment
- Prayers Pouring In For Michael Strahan As He Deals With ‘Personal’ Situation The Spun
- Michael Strahan will miss another week on ‘GMA’ because of ‘personal family matters’ Page Six
- Michael Strahan’s ‘GMA’ absence will continue as he deals with ‘personal family matters’ Yahoo Sports
- Michael Strahan’s Absence From ‘Good Morning America’ Continues Amid ‘Personal Family Matters’ Entertainment Tonight
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Michael Strahan and Alan Shepard’s daughter 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.
Strahan emerged beaming from the capsule where he was greeted by Bezos.
“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 and Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father Alan Shepard went on a suborbital flight in 1961 and later walked on the moon, rode alongside investors Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, and Lane Bess, as well as Bess’ adult child, Cameron Bess — all of whom were paying customers. Blue Origin said that Strahan and Shepard Churchley were “honorary guests,” much like the last celebrity Blue Origin sent to the edge of space, William Shatner, and did not have to pay their way.
This flight marks the first time that Blue Origin filled all six seats on its New Shepard rocket and capsule, which is named for Alan Shepard. On the company’s two previous flights — including the July flight that sent Bezos himself to space — only four of the seats were taken up.
That means the passengers had a bit less wiggle room than prior customers, especially Strahan, who is six feet, five inches tall.
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.
Strahan spent 15 season in the NFL, all of them with the New York Giants, where he won the Super Bowl with them in 2007. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.
Going suborbital
The flight followed a similar profile to Shatner’s flight and Bezos before him, spending less time off the ground than it takes most people to get to work in the morning.
Suborbital flights differ greatly from orbital flights of the type most of us think of when we think of spaceflight. Blue Origin’s New Shepard flights are brief, up-and-down trips, though they travel more than 62 miles above Earth, which some scientists consider to mark the edge of outer space.
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.
Suborbital flights require far less power and speed. That means less time the rocket is required to burn, lower temperatures scorching the outside of the spacecraft, less force and compression ripping at the spacecraft, and generally fewer opportunities for something to go very wrong.
New Shepard’s suborbital flights hit about about three times the speed of sound — roughly 2,300 miles per hour — and fly directly upward until the rocket expends most of its fuel. The crew capsule then separates from the rocket at the top of the trajectory and briefly continues upward before the capsule almost hovers at the top of its flight path, giving the passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
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.
The big picture
This flight marked the third of what Blue Origin hopes will be many space tourism launches, carrying wealthy customers to the edge of space. It could be a line of business that helps to fund Blue Origin’s other, more ambitious space projects, which include developing a 300-foot-tall rocket powerful enough to blast satellites into orbit and a lunar lander.
It’s not clear how much money the paying customers on Saturday’s flight shelled out for their seats. Blue Origin has not publicly identified a ticket price, though the company did host an auction earlier this year to sell an extra seat alongside Bezos during his July flight.
The winner of that auction agreed to fork over a whopping $28 million for the seat, but that still-anonymous individual opted not to take the ride just yet. Oliver Daemen, then an 18-year-old whose father was a runner-up in the ticket auction, stepped in instead.
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.
But Taylor, the chairman and CEO of space investing firm Voyager, did pledge to donate an equivalent amount of money to charity — including donations to organizations that promote access to space for disabled people and provide fellowships to women and people of color in the aerospace industry.
Taylor wants other wealthy individuals who buy flights to space to do something similar, taking after billionaire Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman’s decision to make his three-day excursion to space aboard a SpaceX rocket into a charity fundraiser for St. Jude to which Isaacman donated $200 million.
That’s the model Taylor hopes everyone will follow. He said he would encourage his fellow paying customers on Saturday’s Blue Origin flight to do the same.
“My guess is, it’s going to be $300 or $400 million spent on commercial spaceflight in the next few years,” Taylor said. “And the people that can afford these tickets can afford twice the ticket, right? I mean, it’s not like they’re putting their last dollar to buy a space ticket. So that’s kind of why I want to do the call to action.”
Michael Strahan launch live updates: ‘Good Morning America’ co-anchor goes to space on Blue Origin flight, lands safely on Earth
WEST TEXAS — Football star and TV celebrity Michael Strahan caught a ride to space with Jeff Bezos’ rocket-launching company Saturday, sharing the trip with the daughter of America’s first astronaut.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted off from West Texas, sending the capsule on a 10-minute flight with the two VIP guests and four paying customers. Their capsule soared to an altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers), providing a few minutes of weightlessness before parachuting into the desert. The booster also came back to land successfully.
It was five minutes and 50 miles (187 kilometers) shorter than Alan Shepard’s Mercury flight from Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961. His eldest daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley, took along a tiny piece of his Freedom 7 capsule as well as mementos from his Apollo 14 moonshot and golf balls in honor of her dad who hit some on the lunar surface.
Bubbling over with excitement in his “Good Morning America” updates all week, Strahan packed his Super Bowl ring and retired New York Giants jersey No. 92. “Pretty SURREAL!” he tweeted on the eve of the launch, delayed two days by dangerously high wind. Bezos stashed a football in the capsule as well, to be awarded to the Pro Football Hall of Fame following the flight.
Bezos, who flew to space in July in the same capsule, accompanied the six passengers to the launch pad near Van Horn. He had “Light this candle” painted on the launch tower’s bridge, borrowing from Alan Shepard’s famous gripe from inside Freedom 7 as the delays mounted: “Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle?”
Shepard Churchley volunteered for Blue Origin’s third passenger flight. She heads the board of trustees for the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
“It’s kind of fun for me to say that an original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard,” she said in a preflight Blue Origin video.
Bezos, who founded Amazon six years before Blue Origin, was on the debut launch in July. The second, in October, included actor William Shatner – Captain James Kirk of TV’s original “Star Trek.” The late Leonard Nimoy’s daughter sent up a necklace with a “Vulcan Salute” charm on this flight, in honor of the show’s original Mr. Spock.
The reusable, automated capsule was especially crowded this time. Instead of four, there were six flying.
Among the the four space tourists paying unspecified millions each were the first father-son combo: Financier Lane Bess and his son Cameron. Also flying: Voyager Space chairman and CEO Dylan Taylor and investor Evan Dick.
Blue Origin dedicated Saturday’s launch to Glen de Vries, who launched into space with Shatner in October, but died one month later in a plane crash.
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Wait for Giants jersey retirement a sore spot for Michael Strahan
It is either the perfect time for the Giants to retire Michael Strahan’s jersey. Or, it is about a decade overdue.
Or, as Strahan thinks, it’s both.
The Giants will retire No. 92 during a halftime ceremony Sunday — 5,046 days after his last game when he led a Super Bowl XLII upset of the then-undefeated Patriots. Since then, no one has worn the number — an unaware Leonard Williams asked once and was denied — and Strahan has become an entertainment megastar ticketed on a flight into outer space. But it became clear Tuesday that the wait for this moment is a sore spot.
“I would have honestly expected it a long time ago,” Strahan, a member of the charter Giants’ Ring of Honor class in 2010, said. “I’ve been in the [Pro Football] Hall of Fame for seven years now. All of the things that I did with the Giants, I would have expected it a little bit sooner.
“But things come in the time in which they’re meant to come and not at the time in which you want them to come sometimes. That’s the way I’m looking at it. I don’t want it to look as if I’m ungrateful or I’m not honored by it, because I truly am.”
It’s fitting the Eagles will be on the opposing sideline, because Strahan thrived on tormenting Philadelphia fans. He had 21.5 of his 141.5 career sacks (No. 6 all-time) in the rivalry and ended a 1999 meeting with an interception return for a touchdown in overtime.
But there is real concern that Eagles fans — optimistic about a two-game winning streak — might invade MetLife Stadium as frustrated Giants fans sell off tickets. That home-stadium takeover— a scenario played out many times over the years on both sides — could lead to awkward booing during Strahan’s celebration.
“The Giants could retire my jersey in Philly. It doesn’t bother me,” Strahan said. “I’m used to Eagles fans. If there are Eagles fans there booing, that’s what I want them to do because if they are not booing, it means I wasn’t very good at my job.
“If any team knows, it’s the Eagles. The most sacks I’ve ever had of any quarterback from any team is theirs, so if they boo, it’s an honor. I’ll take it as that. I always loved playing the Philadelphia Eagles. They were always good for a few sacks a game.”
There was booing the last time the Giants retired a number. Eli Manning gestured for Giants fans to back off owner John Mara at the start of the two-time Super Bowl MVP’s ceremony on Sept. 26. The plan for Sunday calls for radio announcer Bob Papa to introduce Strahan — as he did for the 2011 Super Bowl championship team during their halftime celebration on Oct. 17 — and for ownership to be part of the ceremony.
“There is no city like New York City,” Strahan said. “This is the best place in the world to be, best place in the world to play, best place in the world to have success.”
Strahan is the rare athlete who retired on his terms, off a championship, when he still was productive.
“I definitely know that if we don’t win that Super Bowl, my life is different,” Strahan said. “If we didn’t win that Super Bowl, maybe I come back the next year. Who knows?”
Strahan, an NFL on FOX pregame co-host, said he has played golf in the offseason with Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and receiver Sterling Shepard, but mostly keeps a distance from the team nowadays. He admits to getting frustrated “like every other fan” at the state of the Giants, who are headed for a fifth straight losing record.
“We need to find a way to get back to where we are to be competitive to the point where you’re going to a game and you’re like, ‘OK!’ ” Strahan said. “The thing is there are so many games that we’ve lost literally … [at the] last second or on the penalty or on things like that, that completely changed the season for this team. I just want the team to understand that they are not far off. At the same time, when you’re losing, don’t look around and blame anybody. Don’t wait for somebody to rescue you.”
Michael Strahan to Join Next Blue Origin Space Flight
The “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan signed up to follow the billionaire Jeff Bezos and the actor William Shatner to the edge of space on the next Blue Origin spaceflight, the private company said on Tuesday.
Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Mr. Bezos, said on Tuesday that its third flight with a human crew would launch in early December. This spaceflight will have six passengers, two more than were on the company’s two previous crewed flights, and follows several other private launches this year, as billionaire-backed companies compete to send wealthy tourists on space jaunts.
Mr. Strahan had covered Blue Origin’s first crewed flight, in July, from the company’s launch site in West Texas. On Tuesday, he told his colleagues on “Good Morning America” that when the company approached him about joining the flight he said yes, “without hesitation.”
“I believe that this is the way of being innovative, creative, pioneers in aviation, now space travel,” Mr. Strahan said on the show on Tuesday. “And it’s going to take a while, but I do believe that it will bring a lot of technological breakthroughs and also innovations to us here on Earth, and I just want to be a part of it.”
Mr. Strahan said he had met the other members of the crew on Zoom and had been fitted for a spacesuit.
Blue Origin invited two guests for its next spaceflight, Mr. Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space in 1961. The other four passengers paid for their seats. A spokesperson for Blue Origin, Sara Blask, declined to say how much they paid.
The other crew members include the first parent-child pair to fly into space: Lane Bess, a technology investor who founded the company Bess Ventures and Advisory, and the father of Cameron Bess, a content creator.
Blue Origin said the other passengers will be Evan Dick, an engineer and investor, and Dylan Taylor, the chairman and chief executive of Voyager Space, a space exploration company.
Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest people in the world, was a passenger on the company’s first flight with a human crew in July. Also that month, another private spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, took the company’s founder, Richard Branson, to the edge of space and back.
Blue Origin completed its second crewed flight in October. The crew included William Shatner, who at 90 became the oldest person to fly in space. Another passenger, Glen de Vries, died less than a month later in a plane crash in New Jersey.
The third flight is scheduled to launch from West Texas on Dec. 9. Next year, three passengers plan to reach the International Space Station on a rocket developed by a third spaceflight company, SpaceX, on seats bought through the company Axiom Space.