Final Frontier: Wings Awarded to Bezos, Branson, and Shatner, Strahan Touches Down
The civilian and private business space race is well into its next phase now. Former NFL star and current Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan is the latest famous face in flight, and the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded official astronaut status to some of the earlier rocketeers.
The FAA announced this week that it will be ending its Commercial Space Astronaut Wings program in 2022. But before that happens, the program will have three more honorees, awarding astronaut wings to Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and obviously most importantly, to William Shatner himself.
The Star Trek legend becomes the first person to have played an astronaut before becoming one in real life. Twelve other commercial flight astronauts will be awarded wings for their 2021 travel to the heavens, as well as some who were on pre-2021 flights.
“The U.S. commercial human spaceflight industry has come a long way from conducting test flights to launching paying customers into space,” the FAA’s Wayne Monteith said in a statement. “The Astronaut Wings program, created in 2004, served its original purpose to bring additional attention to this exciting endeavor. Now it’s time to offer recognition to a larger group of adventurers daring to go to space.”
On Saturday, the Blue Origin spacecraft launched and returned safely to earth with a six-person crew, and as Space.com notes, set 6 records while they were at it, including Strahan as the tallest person to fly to space to date.
Laura Shepard Churchley, oldest daughter of pioneer American astronaut Alan Shepard, was on the crew as well. “Over 60 years ago on May 5, 1961, her father became the first person to make a sub-orbital flight. Churchley becomes the second second-generation American astronaut and the first daughter of a space traveler to leave the planet,” Space.com writes.
It has been a good week for space in the most active and exciting year for space travel in decades.
Watch the clips above, via CNN.
