Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company blasted its third private crew to space on Saturday, this time including the daughter of the first American astronaut.

The stubby white spacecraft with a round tip blasted off into clear blue skies over West Texas for a roughly 11 minute trip to just beyond the internationally-recognized boundary of space, 62 miles (100 kilometers) high.

The six-member crew was to enjoy a few minutes' weightlessness before the spaceship was to return to Earth for a gentle parachute landing in the desert.

Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space in 1961, was flying as a guest of Blue Origin.

The company's suborbital rocket is in fact named "New Shepard" in honor of the pioneering astronaut.

Michael Strahan, an American football Hall of Famer turned TV personality, was also a guest, while there were four paying customers: space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess.

Lane and Cameron Bess became the first parent-child pair to fly in space. Ticket prices have not been disclosed.

Alan Shepard performed a 15-minute suborbital space flight on May 5, 1961, just under a month after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbiting the planet.

Shepard, who died in 1998, went on to be the fifth of twelve men to have set foot on the Moon.

Previous Blue Origin flights have flown the company's billionaire founder Bezos as well as Star Trek actor William Shatner to space.

Bezos, who made his fortune with Amazon, envisages a future in which humanity disperses throughout the solar system, living and working in giant space colonies with artificial gravity.

This, he says, would leave Earth as a pristine tourism destination much like national parks today.

The year 2021 has been significant for the space tourism sector, with Virgin Galactic also flying its founder Richard Branson to the final frontier, and Elon Musk's SpaceX sending four private citizens on a three-day orbital mission for charity.

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Blue Origin plans to launch largest crew yet Saturday
Orlando FL (UPI) Dec 10, 2021
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket company plans to launch six people, its largest crew yet, including the daughter of late astronaut Alan Shepard and ABC News anchor Michael Strahan, into space Saturday from Texas. Blue Origin plans liftoff of the New Shepard rocket on its NS-19 mission at 8:45 a.m. CST from its Corn Ranch spaceport 160 miles east of El Paso. Launch personnel postponed a launch Wednesday because of high winds in the area. Previous launches in July and October carried Bezos and Willi ... read more