Blue Origin set to fly first married couple to space on Mar 29; 'will test our fortitude'

Blue Origin is heading towards a new sub-orbital mission - NS 20, wherein six people would experience zero gravity on March 29. The mission, which will be carried out in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, holds significance as it would see the first-ever married couple to visit space in a commercial spacecraft. The lucky couple set to share the experience is Sharon and Marc Hagle (both 73) who say that the forthcoming trip would “test their fortitude”. The pair would be part of the six-membered crew that would ascend to an altitude of about 100 kilometres after landing back on Earth after experiencing three minutes of weightlessness. The launch is targeted at 7 pm (IST) from Blue Origin's launch facility in West Texas. 

(Image: Blue Origin)

Speaking with Insider, Marc said, “We hope we're talking to each other when we come back to earth because ... it's gonna be an experience that's going to test our fortitude”. Married for the last 26 years, the couple said that they had registered for Blue Origin’s flight tickets in May last year and found out about their selection before Christmas following the auction. 

"We were under nondisclosure. Do you know how difficult it is to have this information and not be able to tell anybody?" Marc told Insider as per Yahoo Finance. Interestingly, the pair have no plans to stop after the March 29 flight as they are planning for more spaceflights in the capsules of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and another aerospace company Space Perspective. Marc is the president and CEO of property development corporation Tricor International whereas Sharon is the CEO of nonprofit SpaceKids Global. Their trip to space can be seen as an upgradation to their adventurous endeavours as the duo has previously swam with humpback whales and descended into the caves of New Zealand. 

Blue Origin’s NS 20 crew

Apart from the power couple, the NS 20 capsule seats will be occupied by Blue Origin engineer Gary Lai, Party America CEO Marty Allen, entrepreneur Jim Kitchen, and president of Commercial Space Technologies, LLC, Dr. George Nield. Gary Lai, who is the chief architect of the New Shepard (NS) system, is the replacement for comedian, actor and "Saturday Night Live" star Pete Davidson who would not be making it to space. 

Image: Blue Origin