HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Her father was the first American into space. Now, the daughter of Alan Shepard will follow in her father's footsteps. Blue Origin will launch its third crewed spaceflight on Thursday, Dec. 9. Laura Shepard Churchley will be one of the six passengers in the capsule of Thursday’s NS-19 launch.
Shepard Churchley has close connections to the Cosmosphere, serving on Cosmosphere’s Foundation Board from 2003-2008.
“We’re thrilled that astronaut Alan Shepard’s daughter and friend of the Cosmosphere, Laura Shepard Churchley, will be on the 19th flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle, named in her father’s honor,” Jim Remar, Cosmosphere president and CEO, said. “Laura recalls her childhood excitement at learning her father would fly into space in an oral history interview that plays for visitors in our Hall of Space Museum. We at the Cosmosphere felt that excitement ourselves when we learned Laura herself would be aboard the NS-19.”
The Cosmosphere plans to show the live broadcast of the launch on a big screen TV in the Grand Lobby on Thursday. The launch is currently scheduled for 9 a.m. CST.
Cosmosphere visitors can reflect on the similarities and differences in the father-daughter duo’s space capsule experiences. Shepard Churchley will be one of six passengers in a capsule with six seats around the perimeter. Alan Shepard, her father, made his historic suborbital flight 60 years ago alone in the relatively-cramped quarters of a Mercury capsule built for one.
A flown Mercury capsule, the Liberty Bell 7, is on display at the Cosmosphere where visitors can peer inside the spacecraft.
Visitors to the Cosmosphere can also marvel at two autographed photos on loan from the personal collection of Laura Shepard Churchley and the actual Omega watch worn by Alan Shepard during his Apollo 14 Moon landing, on loan from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and displayed in the Cosmosphere’s Grand Lobby. Shepard landed on the Moon 10 years after his pioneering Mercury mission.
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