CLEVELAND, Ohio — Blue Origin has completed 31 launches, 12 of which included human passengers. Now, for its 32nd launch, a man from Northeast Ohio will be aboard.
Paul Jeris, a 65-year-old from Put-in-Bay, has dreamed of going to space his entire life.
“My father was an engineer for Nasa for 29 years. I grew up a Nasa kid. So I grew up watching the mariner, the voyager, the Viking missions,” said Jeris.
After spending years on a waitlist for a seat, Blue Origin finally gave him the call — and now, he’s heading for the stars. News 5 spoke with him from inside the training capsule for Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Jeris is part of a six-person crew set to launch Saturday morning. But before the countdown begins, the team is undergoing intense training.
Jake Mills, known as Crew Member 7, is spending three days training each crew member at Blue Origin’s facility in Texas to ensure they’re prepared for every possible scenario aboard the craft.
“We have a classroom, and in the classroom we learn the concepts, and then we have a training capsule, and then we come practice those concepts,” said Mills.
The entire trip will last just 10 minutes, but in that time, they'll experience zero gravity, feel up to 5 Gs of force, and take in a panoramic view of Earth from the edge of space.
“Basically it's called the overview effect. Just to look out at the earth and see that thin blue line that separates, you know, darkness from that thin blue line,” said Jeris.
It’s a view many NASA astronauts have seen, and now, more people are getting the chance.
“This is a really remarkable time to be, experiencing space, you know, what, what the spaceflight, commercialization is looking like,” said Kelly Gilkey, project manager at NASA Glenn Research Center for the human research program.
Participation in space launches is becoming more accessible to those who are interested — or willing to pay. But how much does it cost? That remains a mystery.
“It is one of our goals to get that cost low enough where we can send everybody to space,” said Mills.
For Jeris, though, it’s not about the price, but the experience.
“It's just a culmination of a lifelong dream, and, the experience of a lifetime,” said Jeris.
The launch is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Back in Put-in-Bay, Mr. Ed’s Bar and Grille will be live streaming the launch. Jeris says he has a tab open and plans to buy everyone a drink when he returns to Earth.
