By Shanna Cummings
On Tuesday, July 20, at just after 8:00 am, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen from the Netherlands made history together in a little crew capsule under the big West Texas sky.
Blue Origin’s first manned unpiloted flight with an all-civilian crew came off without a hitch.
The 10-minute trip is only the latest culmination of over 15 years’ work, since the project was announced in 2005.
For many in town, it was their first opportunity to witness the program in action.
On the morning of the launch, watch parties were set up or organically sprang up all over town. Van Horn Cattle Company welcomed community leaders with mimosas and Blue Origin “swag bags” to watch the live feed of the launch. The brand new school auditorium gathered around two dozen viewers for the live Blue Origin feed, a few of whom found themselves on camera with newscasters.
On the front row, Marcel Gonzalez held his six-year-old daughter Micela Grace on his lap to watch the launch feed. Gonzalez had helped build part of the launch site.
“When I was a senior coming out of high school, I was working on the little cement pads when it was barely starting up there,” he said.
Elsewhere, travelers on I-10 pulled into parking lots in groups. Out on Highway 54, vehicles lined up behind where TxDOT blocked off the road, carts, trucks and RVs parked along both shoulders. Though far from the Blue Origin site entrance, they were still close enough to see the site from a distance and witness the rocket’s ascent to the Karman Line, the internationally recognized barrier between the earth and outer space.
In the school auditorium, viewers chanted the last few seconds before ignition, cheering at the burst of flame as the New Shepard blasted off.
The sonic booms, created when the rocket broke the sound barrier, rolled over the countryside.
After the crew capsule detached to continue its ascent, the booster returned to earth at the landing pad, to be used in future launches.
The capsule reached its apogee, the highest point of the ascent, at 351,210 feet. The historic crewmembers experienced a few precious minutes of zero gravity and an awe-inspiring view of the Earth’s curvature and the dark of space, rolling cartwheels and passing ping pong balls to each other before buckling back in for the return trip. On the way back down, two sets of parachutes deployed to slow the capsule’s descent until it glided back to earth, cushioned by a last moment burst of air.
“Flight control, Bezos. Best day ever!”
News media outlets from around the world converged on Van Horn area in the days leading up to the launch to film and photograph and interview locals and town/county leaders. Some arrived even before Jubilee weekend to get a feel for the town and gather photos. Mayor Becky Brewster said she was interviewed at least two dozen times in person, on the phone and over Zoom. County Commissioner Gilda Morales said she fielded five or six interview calls.
Articles about Van Horn and the launch appeared in the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, National Public Radio. They described the relationship between Blue Origin and the town of Van Horn. Some mention the juxtaposition of the billion-dollar space project so near the town with water infrastructure problems, how the town struggles to negotiate the issues that come with the influx of higher-paid Blue Origin employees. They also mention the ways Blue Origin has helped the community through the school and letters of support for various grants.
Media camps popped up in various parts of town, finally settling in the city parking lot under the vivid Van Horn mural.
In many ways, the town seemed to wake up a bit, shake off the COVID dust. Between the Jubilee and the launch, the town was bustling. After the Jubilee, the Mercado parking lot was hopping, with two to three, sometimes four food trucks serving residents, media, and curious tourists. The day of the launch, food trucks set up in a couple of places along Broadway, hoping to attract some of the current flowing through town. Restaurants stayed open longer, or opened on off days. A few entrepreneurs took advantage of the influx, offering wares in parking lots. Restaurants opened early and closed late.
Launches usually bring Blue Origin employees and others into town for a few days, and the town attracts the occasional journalist or documentarian for stories. This week was different. Hotels here filled up well before launch day. The vacant hotel beside the Van Horn Cattle Company was put to use housing Blue Origin employees. Last minute launch viewers had to look over 100 miles away for lodging.
One family drove in from the Dallas/Fort Worth area made a spur-of-the-moment decision on Monday evening to drive in. They left their hotel in Midland at around 4:30 am to make it to Van Horn in time, arriving with only minutes to spare before liftoff.
“We were like, ‘Let’s make this happen,’” Angelique Urquidez said. “So, we packed some bags and tried to find a hotel; that’s what took us some time.”
“It’s got to be exciting to be the youngest person up in space for the first time, and the oldest person in space for the first time,” she added, referring to Daemen and Funk.
Visitors stayed in town after the launch, looking for photo ops at the murals and searching out souvenirs, filling restaurants and selling out food trucks. Commemorative shirts made for the launch and sold at Hotel El Capitan sold out early, but some tourists purchased postcards for the Postbox to Space in front of the Clark Hotel museum.
That night, with the music of the launch celebration at El Capitan filling the streets, the road sign beside La Caverna blinked a message:
“Thank you Van Horn for your support! Gradatim Ferociter – Blue Origin.”
