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said, “No, I truly had no concept of it at all. I never even thought about it.” So it certainly never crossed Laura’s mind that she’d ever go to space herself. However, in 2017, she was approached by her friend Jeff Ashby, a three-time shuttle pilot for NASA, who nowworks for aerospace company Blue Origin. Ashby knew that Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin,
and Laura said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if a real Shepard went on the New Shepard?” “I didn’t think there was anyone fromBlue Origin there,” she said, “but in September Michael Edmonds [a senior vice president at Blue Origin] called and asked if I’d like to go for a ride.” Laura’s response was simply, “That would be really nice.” Puzzled, Michael said, “I thought you’d be a little more excited.” Laura’s emphatic reply was, “I’ve been waiting for you guys to call me!” Once Laura knew taking a ride into space was going to be a reality for her, she started to mentally prepare. She said, “I was afraid I was going to be afraid and I didn’t want to be.” To get more comfortable with the idea, Laura went to watch Blue Origin’s first
Laura Shepard Churchley embraces Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos after he pins the company’s astronaut wings on her flight suit (Photo credit: Blue Origin)
was building a reusable suborbital rocket system called New Shepard, named after Laura’s father. He asked if she would ever be interested in going. She was hesitant and told Ashby she would have to think about it and talk it over with her family.
New Shepard’s booster touches down on its landing pad (Photo credit: Blue Origin)
Over dinner one night, the topic of
Blue Origin’s missions came up and Laura said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if a real Shepard went on the New Shepard?”
commercial flight launch in person in July 2021; she watched the second launch on TV in October 2021. After seeing the success of those flights with civilians on board she gainedmore confidence. Laura believed everything would work out as it should and often reminded herself of a saying fromher Christian Science background, “trust and know as you go.” Boosting her confidence evenmore was the training she and her fellow passengers received. “Training was spectacular,” Laura said. “They had a simulator identical to our space craft. We got in and out of it 20 times a day. Every time we went in, we had to pretend it was the real thing, buckling our harnesses, looking at the monitors, everything. We would do a simulation of the 10 minute launch every time we went in.”The simulations even included the sounds they would be hearing throughout their journey.
In the meantime, she told Ashby, she would like a tour of Blue Origin. Laura and a friend traveled to Kent, Washington, where they toured Blue Origin headquarters and even got to sit in a capsule simulator. The following year, Laura met some Blue Origin staff at the Space Symposium in Broadmoor, Colorado, where she was able to sit in a simulator seat again; she started to become more comfortable with the idea that she really might want to go to space. Fast forward to June 2021, when Laura traveled to Cape Canaveral to attend a 50th anniversary celebration of Apollo 14, the mission on which her father walked on the moon. Over dinner one night, the topic of Blue Origin’s missions came up
The crew of New Shepard NS-19. Pictured from left to right: Dylan Taylor, Lane Bess, Cameron Bess, Laura Shepard Churchley, Michael Strahan and Evan Dick. (Photo credit: Blue Origin)
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THE P.E.O. RECORD | May–June 2022
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