Blue Origin Honors Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy With Latest Space Flight
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin carried out its most recent flight with its New Shepard space craft on Saturday and the latest mission paid tribute to Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy as part of the flight. On the flight with the passengers aboard Blue Origin New Shepard Mission NS-19 was a token of Nimoy's memory in the form of a silver pendant with the initials of Spock's phrase "Live long and prosper" engraved on it. The pendant belongs to Nimoy's daughter, Julie, who lent it to a passenger on the mission who themselves happens to be the daughter of an icon: Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard. According to Yahoo Entertainment, Julie Nimoy approached Churchley about taking the pendant on the flight.
"My dad would have wanted to launch into space and spread his enduring message of hope and inspiration for all to live long and prosper," Nimoy said.
Blue Origin shared about the tribute on their Twitter account, sharing a photo of the pendant as well. You can check that out below.
Besides the 6 people on board #NS19 there’s a pendant provided by the daughter of Leonard Nimoy. Live long and prosper. pic.twitter.com/iTAs1BC8JZ
— Justin Davenport (@Bubbinski) December 11, 2021
In addition to Churchley, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan and four others were aboard Saturday's Blue Origin flight. Saturday's flight marked the first time that Blue Origin had all six seats on board occupied. The flight had also been delayed for two days due to high winds before it blasted off on Saturday from Blue Origin's launch facility in Texas.
The tribute to Leonard Nimoy isn't the first Star Trek-related moment for Blue Origins. Earlier this year, William Shatner went up with three other crew members in the New Shepard NS-18 mission. Shatner's flight broke records with the 90-year-old Shatner becoming the oldest person to ever go into space with the mission.
"It was so moving to me," he said immediately after landing. "This experience is something unbelievable. I'm so filled with emotion about what just happened ... it's extraordinary."
Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace manufacturer that conducts sub-orbital spaceflights. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. In July, the company had its first crewed mission with Bezos himself part of the New Shepard's crew.
