Daughter of pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard set for Blue Origin spaceflight

FILE PHOTO: The Launch Site One sign is shown after Blue Origin delayed, for weather, its next New Shepard astro-tourism flight with an all-civilian crew of six, including two non-paying guests of honor, "Good Morning America" co-anchor and former NFL star Michael Strahan, and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space for whom the New Shepard spacecraft is named from Launch Site One in West Texas, Texas, U.S., December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

VAN HORN, Texas (Reuters) - The eldest daughter of pioneering U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard is set for a ride to the edge of space aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin commercial rocketship on Saturday, 60 years after her late father's famed suborbital NASA flight at the dawn of the Space Age.

Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, who was a schoolgirl when her father first streaked into space, is one of six individuals due for liftoff at 8:45 a.m. Central time (1445 GMT) from Blue Origin's launch site outside the rural west Texas town of Van Horn.