Astronaut! Brevard's Steve Young flies into space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket
For decades, nearly all astronauts have traveled to Cape Canaveral from points around the world, launched into space, and then returned home.
Count Steve Young as an exception. The Indialantic resident and Eau Gallie restaurateur has reversed that trend — he left his Space Coast home and traveled roughly 1,600 miles to Texas to fly aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on Thursday morning.
During a post-flight press conference, Young became emotional while trying to describe seeing the blue line of Earth's mesosphere and the black line of space outside the capsule windows.
“I’m thankful that I got to experience that. I had, obviously, a very emotional touch from it. And I’m going to leave it at that," Young said, holding a microphone and fighting back tears.
"But, thank you. Thank you for giving me this," he said, patting his chest.
Owner of Pineapples: Eau Gallie restaurateur set to fly to space Thursday on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket
Steve Young: Owner of Pineapples in Eau Gallie to fly into space on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket
Young's flight came on a busy day for space travel. Earlier Thursday morning, an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, lofting a Space Force satellite to orbit. Meanwhile, SpaceX was poised to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape in the evening.
“I think it is exciting that we have a hometown boy flying," said Dale Ketcham, Space Florida vice president of government and external relations.
"And I like the sheer coincidence of him flying from Texas on the same day we're — for the first time in 50 years — flying two flights in one day," Ketcham said.
Young joined five fellow astronauts on Blue Origin's NS-22 mission, which launched just before 10 a.m. from the company's Launch Site One near rural Van Horn, Texas.
The NS-22 mission marked Blue Origin's sixth human spaceflight and the 22nd flight for the New Shepard program.
Crew members named their mission "the Titanium Feather" — titanium is the 22nd element on the periodic table.
The suborbital rocket-capsule tandem separated about 47 miles above Earth. Then the 10-foot-tall capsule continued climbing past the 100-kilometer Kármán Line, letting its "space tourist" passengers float for a few minutes of microgravity.
"Congratulations to all six crew of the Titanium Feather. They just officially became astronauts with an apogee well over 100 kilometers, the internationally recognized boundary line of space," Blue Origin commentator Eduardo Seyffert said during a live webcast.
"Both the crew capsule and booster are now descending," Seyffert added.
The booster returned to the ground for a fiery landing. The capsule entered freefall, slowed after a trio of parachutes deployed, and touched down at 10:07 a.m. in the West Texas desert.
A fleet of trucks swarmed the capsule, and crew workers "grounded" the capsule to prevent static discharge. Then the newly minted astronauts descended a blue portable platform ladder to greet loved ones.
Mission elapsed time was 10 minutes, 20 seconds, Blue Origin announced. Maximum ascent velocity: 2,239 mph.
The crew of #NS22 and their final moments before liftoff. pic.twitter.com/w5Sw8F9At1
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) August 4, 2022
Young is the former CEO of telecommunications-installation giant Y-Com. He opened Pineapples in April 2021 on Highland Avenue in downtown Eau Gallie. His fellow astronauts:
Coby Cotton, who cofounded the YouTube sports-entertainment channel Dude Perfect — which has more than 57 million followers.
Mário Ferreira, a Portuguese entrepreneur, investor and president of Pluris Investments Group, which includes more than 40 companies.
Vanessa O’Brien, a British-American explorer who set a Guinness World Record by becoming the first woman to complete the "Explorers’ Extreme Trifecta." She previously climbed Mount Everest and journeyed to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench.
Clint Kelly III, who is credited with starting the development of the technology base leading to today’s driverless cars.
Sara Sabry, an Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer who founded Deep Space Initiative.
Ferreira became the first person from Portugal to reach space, while Sabry became the first astronaut from Egypt.
Young's flight aside, Thursday was slated to make history in Brevard County as a double-launch day.
At 6:29 a.m., a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off from Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a Space Force missile warning satellite into orbit.
Next, at neighboring Launch Complex 40, South Korea's first lunar orbiter mission is scheduled to launch at 7:08 p.m. atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“I think what's neat about that is, we're certainly not going to wait 50 years before we do that again," Ketcham said of the day's dual launches.
"It’s going to become more the more routine than the exception in the future," he said.
Wednesday, Young and his crewmates filled out postcards to carry into space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future. Postcards are placed in a payload box and loaded into the crew capsule, and they are later stamped "Flown to Space."
Young also took along a small Surfing Santas of Cocoa Beach plush toy. He was allowed to bring up to 3 pounds of items aboard the capsule to fly into space.
Afterward, he said NS-22 exceeded his expectations — and he wants to come back to Launch Site One and watch the autonomous booster land during a future mission.
“You start to think about the Earth as all of ours, versus, ‘I’m just focused on my area in Brevard County,’ " Young said during the press conference.
"Now, it’s more of a worldly thought, I guess is a better way to put it," he said.
Previous New Shepard passengers include Amazon-Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, "Star Trek" icon William Shatner and “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan.
"It’s an honor for our team to provide our customers with a life-changing shift in perspective of our fragile planet,” Phil Joyce, New Shepard senior vice president, said in a news release after the capsule landed.
“It's been just over a year since New Shepard’s first human flight, and we have now flown 31 humans above the Kármán line. Thank you to these early pioneers in helping us realize our vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth," Joyce said.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Blue Origin's New Shepard flies Brevard's Steve Young into space
