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, 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 shorter than Alan Shepard's Mercury flight from Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961.