UNC-Chapel Hill professor, Jim Kitchen will see his classroom at the Kenan-Flagler business school from a whole new perspective later this month after he leaves the atmosphere on a rocket ship. Kitchen is one of the passengers on the latest flight of Blue Origin’s “New Shepard” spacecraft. This will be the fourth flight since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos climbed aboard the company’s first spacecraft. New Shepard will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas.
‘’When I was when I was a kid, I saw a space launch from Florida. I grew up in Florida, and I remember sitting on my mom's lap and watching this Apollo launch lift up into space, “ Kitchen said. “The sky lit up and the ground shook. It was a Saturn rocket and as soon as I saw that I knew I wanted to be an astronaut.”
For a time, Kitchen’s travels were Earthbound. He estimates he’s visited more than 193 countries. Kitchen says the space bug bit him in 1985, prompting him to start a company marketing space trips. Less than one week from his own voyage into space, he’s still not sure it’s real.
“I've been in a state of denial for about the last two weeks. Just walking around zombie like. I can't fathom this is happening. The last few days has been, you know, I've been very introspective,” he said.
Kitchen will be joined by SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle, along with her husband Marc, CEO of Tricor International, and Commercial Space Technologies President Dr. George Nield. The adventure will last about 11 minutes, from launch to landing.
New Shepard launches to an altitude of roughly 63 miles, a widely recognized marker of where space begins. It’s known as the Kármán line. At peak altitude, the booster rocket releases its crewed capsule. The booster returns to Earth autonomously. The crew members descend separately underneath the capsule's parachute.
Kitchen says while he’s not allowed to bring a camera and personal items, he is assured cameras will be inside the autonomous vehicle capturing all the action throughout the launch.
One item he will bring with him is a gift from his students: a sticker that says, “ My professor went to space and all I got was this lousy sticker.”