Space Elaine
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Elaine’s Interview with Fox32 Chicago
March 3, 2025 1:58pm EST
Watch Elaine’s interview with Fox32 Chicago about her Blue Origin space launch.
L+4 Invincibility
March 01, 2025 9:37am EST
Day four and I’m experiencing a post-flight symptom of invincibility. I must be Superman and I must be invincible. How I haven’t tricked my brain into feeling this way prior to the space flight, I don’t know. How amazing it is to walk through life on a high like this. I’m holding onto it for as long as I can.
I can’t believe that one day my children’s children will think flying to space is normal and might not even look out the window to marvel at the view.
Some kind of new life has been injected into me. I see things differently now.
L+3 Processing Journey to Space
February 28, 2025 2:46pm EST
Third day post flight. I delivered presentations to three primary classes at a local school who watched my flight during their school day. “Cool!” the kids exclaimed. I could get used to my new gig as a space ambassador, one who was actually flung into space, took a look around and then was sucked back to Earth. I am pretty sure a few of the children are now set on going to space. Mission accomplished.
My brain is doing batch data processing. Visions of space periodically flash before my eyes. Visions of a place I actually saw. Flashbacks of the ascent and descent are recalled over and over. The immensity of my journey begins to sink in as I allow the adrenalin to wear off. I have delayed all work, all commitments, and locked down the house to visitors. Interaction with the outside world is minimized. I haven’t even watched the webcast playback. Preservation of my own unique memory is paramount right now. Watching how others saw my flight is not what I want to do.
Group shots of New Shepard’s NS-30 crew, known as ‘A Perfect 10’
February 27, 2025 4:15pm EST
Blue Origin’s crew for the NS-30 Mission came up with the name ‘A Perfect 10’ to represent being its tenth human spaceflight.
L+2 Adjusting to normal
February 27, 2025 3:16pm EST
Second day post space. Interview with Chicago-based media today as well as work calls and an appearance at a preschool. A little 4-year-old girl with long brown hair really wanted to take her photo with me and hold my hand. We stood with her class under a big shady tree and said “Space!” as they took our photo.
I’m tired today and spent time reliving the moment by posting to social media. I discovered social media is fun when posting about yourself, going through my own photos of the event, and receiving messages of congratulations from total strangers is a new feeling for me. Thank you everyone!
Australia is receiving word of my high achievement (pun intended). Friends are contacting me from all over the world. I am content and at peace, sitting still in my comfy chair.
L+1 Departure Day from Van Horn
February 26, 2025 2:15pm EST
Finally, I slept a solid 7 hours. Free from the stress and anticipation of going to space, being followed by cameras, training, getting it right, and being a good team player. I met with the geniuses who built and tested the rocket and mission control and was able to recount to them what I experienced. I don’t think anything I said surprised them.
A strange and mutual unspoken feeling was shared between Lane, Richard, and myself as we were paraded in front of these people. We were in awe of them. The applause was not being properly directed and we felt like we had done nothing to deserve it. I told them what they were doing was noble and cutting edge; it was nothing they didn’t already know.
I saw Flight Director Michelle Christensen again, seated with her team in front of me. She asked if there was anything about the experience that I didn’t expect.
I had never done this before, so everything was essentially unexpected. I told her the biggest aspect I didn’t realize was how much mental preparation I needed. I was relieved when my two other crewmates nodded their heads in agreement. Mental gymnastics, clearing schedules, and meditation all allowed me to achieve a level-headed calm about the situation.
All I want to do is climb back in and go up there again.
See Elaine’s official Blue Origin headshot and the rocket booster landing
L-0 Launch Day
February 25, 2025 12:20pm EST
Of course, I didn’t sleep a wink. I was ready before I had to be. Cameras were scanning waiting for me to emerge from the Airstream. The countdown clock at the training center was counting down for my crew – A Perfect 10. It was UNREAL!
Faster than a speeding bullet, I pierced through the atmosphere to behold an extraordinary sight. Then, balancing on the quiet edge of infinity I heard a voice so strong and full of gravity that I could not ignore it. Mother Earth was talking to me, calling me back, but like a delinquent teenager trying to test the boundaries, I didn’t want to go home.
Unavoidably, I plummeted like a brick back to the ground. The steady build of G-forces stuck me to my chair. I reached 2,401mph, a little over Mach 3.1, and experienced 5.5 G’s sustained for a few seconds. That means I was falling a little over a mile every two seconds. 1..2..
I stepped out of the capsule onto the soft desert sand. Half my mind was still in space, I looked around and could not reconcile the desert vista to the space image my brain was overlaying upon it. Yet with cameras in my face, I was forced to process what had just happened to me quickly.
The ultimate adrenaline rush for a crew of ultimate adrenaline junkies.
Watch the Blue Origin Launch
New Shepard’s crewed NS-30 mission is GO for launch from Launch Site One tomorrow
February 24, 2025 1:15pm EST
For mission updates, visit the Blue Origin website.
Photo Credit: Blue Origin
Mission patch, launch date
February 21, 2025 11:27am EST
I will blast off on a rocket on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 at 9:30 AM CST.
Learn more about the symbolism of the patch.
Crew 10 Announcement “Hello, World!”
February 19, 2025 2:45pm EST
Happy Birthday to me. At 4pm PST, February 18, 2025, Crew 10 NS-30 was announced in a Blue Origin press release and I’m in it.
I felt like I had just been born on the internet.
My phone started buzzing non stop with messages that said, “Congratulations!”
One of the first commands I learned in the C programming language was:
printf(“Hello, World!\n”)
Running this command causes the words “Hello, World!” to appear on a computer screen. The first time I made this happen, I stared googly eyed at my screen for a few seconds. I felt like my computer had come alive and was now talking to me.
Staring at my photo in this crew announcement gave me the same feeling. The internet me had just been created and she had a Facebook and Instagram account. A new internet person, just born, with zero friends and followers.
“Hello, World!”, she said.
LINKS
Space Elaine Website
Space Elaine Facebook
Space Elaine Instagram
Watch the NS-30 launch on (Date to be announced)
The countdown begins
February 14, 2025 1:42pm EST
The anticipation is palpable. It fills my every thought, every action, and hovers in the air just above my skin. I can feel it all around me as I move about. I have been given a date. I’m going to space! The grin on my face must be absolutely dorky but luckily I’m not someone who looks in the mirror much.
I have met my crewmates via a Zoom astronaut meet-and-greet. Upon accessing my online astronaut portal, I am greeted with the words “Astronaut Elaine.” There, I can buy artifacts from my flight like pieces of the rocket and various models and replicas.
Yesterday, I met with primary school kids who interviewed me about my upcoming trip. They stood in line for my autograph. I wrote “See you in space! – Elaine Hyde” on little pieces of paper and they looked adoringly at me with eyes full of wonder. In that instant, I didn’t need to go to space anymore. I wanted time to stop, frozen in that moment.
Onward.