Good Morning America co-host and NFL legend Michael Strahan announced that he will fly to space on Jeff Bezos’ ‘Blue Origin’ on its next flight, to take place on December 9.  It will be the rocket’s third human flight this year, and marks the first flight with a full astronaut manifest of six crew members in the capsule. Liftoff is set to take place at 9 a.m. CT on Dec. 9 at the “Launch Site One” facility in the West Texas desert.

Strahan said that one of the reasons he wants to travel on Blue Origin is the opportunity to be part of space exploration: “I believe that this is the way of being innovative, creative, pioneers in aviation, now space travel. 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.”

Joining Strahan on the mission will be Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who is the first American to fly to space and the namesake of New Shepard on the space flight. They will also be joined by Space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, and Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess and his child, Cameron. Lane and Cameron will be the first parent-child pair to fly in space.

Strahan began preparing for the mission two weeks ago, and has spoken to his fellow crew members via Zoom. The crew members will meet in Texas to begin training and undergo safety briefings soon.

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