Six more people are expected to go to the edge of space Thursday morning on Blue Origin's New Shepherd rocket.
Gary Lai is among the six passengers. He has been with the New Shephard Program from the beginning and spent his entire career designing this rocket. "I joined Blue Origin in March of 2004 as one of its first 20 employees," said Lai. "In that time, [the New Shephard rocket] was just a concept, a little bit more advanced than a napkin sketch. I helped build the team that would eventually design and put it together."
Lai is the only non-paying customer on Thursday's suborbital flight. He'll be joined by Marty Allen, Jim Kitchen, George Nield, and Marc and Sharon Hagle.
Allen is an angel investor and former Chief Executive of a party supply store and a closet design company.
Kitchen is faculty member of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Nield is the president and founder of Commercial Space Technologies.
Sharon founded SpaceKids Global, a nonprofit that works to encourage students, especially young girls, to pursue STEM careers. Marc is the chief executive of a residential and commercial property development firm based in Florida. The Hagles will be the first married couple to jointly fly on a commercial spaceflight.
The launch was delayed by high winds on Tuesday. This will be the fourth human flight for the Bezos' company. Blast off is at 8:30 a.m. CST.
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