Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Thursday, February 27, 2025, 19 :11
Jesús Calleja, the 59-year-old Spanish TV presenter from Fresno de la Vega (León), has fulfilled his childhood dream of space travel. The adventurer realized his dream by flying in a New Shepard rocket, owned by Blue Origin, for a ten minute flight on Tuesday.
His arrival back to Earth made him the third Spaniard to travel into space after astronauts Pedro Duque and Miguel López-Alegría. Calleja, who comes from León, was the second person to exit the capsule with his arms outstretched in victory, shouting out loud and wearing a radiant smile; then, just a couple of minutes later, his emotions got the better of him and tears flowed in front of the cameras.
Calleja, who had come to greet his brother Kike at the time, said, “It is fantastic and wonderful. The Earth is beautiful.”
“It is difficult to explain the situation and the [Earth’s] He said with his finger that the atmosphere was a very small line. “It has been my childhood dream… I feel like crying …. I feel like crying…. It’s very special, I’m sorry. I get emotional.
Calleja was still struggling to find words for what he saw more than 100 kilometers up in the skies.
It’s so sublime and overwhelming to see our planet from above. The sky is an intense, bright blue ….. And the space is so black that I immediately thought of how lucky we were to have our planet,” said he. He said: “All of this geopolitical nonsense and all the conflicts would vanish if those in power had the chance to see them,” he continued, stressing that we should not deplete “our home’s” resources.
The daredevil said that during his ascent, he felt “like you were falling apart” because he was constantly being shaken by the 5G force.
Calleja said that while he managed to manage his fears well in the days before the launch, not being in complete control like when he controls a helicopter has caused him a bit more anxiety.
He added an anecdote. “When I reached zero gravity and took off both my harnesses and safety belts I turned around and thought that something was wrong. I thought I was upside-down, but it was really me.”
The mountaineer isn’t sure what to call his feat, but it is clear that “I went into space to do work.”
A suborbital flight
New Shepard took off 20 minutes late from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility. The flight lasted just under 10 minutes, and reached speeds of up to 3,600 km/h – “faster that a speeding Bullet”, according to Calleja.
The fully autonomous capsule separated from the booster at about 250,000 feet (76 kilometres high) and continued into space until it reached an apogee of 345,300 feet (just over 105 kilometres high), passing the so-called Kármán Line at about 100 kilometres, the internationally recognised limit of space, after 3 minutes 32 seconds. The crew experienced weightlessness and breathtaking views for about three minutes with their restraints undone.
The rocket booster then began its descent. First in freefall, and then with the help of the back thrusters, it landed perfectly and quietly on a pad about two miles away (3.22km) from the launch site at 4.58pm.
The capsule was visible on the ground just a few minutes after it had entered a stable, free-fall. The three braking parachute were deployed first, at a height of about 2,000 ft. This was followed by the deployment the three main parachute. Before landing, the retropropulsion system fired a cloud beneath the capsule in order to achieve a soft touchdown in the desert. The dust cloud created by this was considerable.
The six crew members were able to leave the site after an ‘out-of-this world’ experience when several members of support team placed a step ladder. It was calm in the hours before the flight. There was no indication that the flight was in danger, as there were clear skies. The company actually released some images to the press of the crew sounding the bell before entering the capsule which would take them to stars. It was a custom that is more similar to seafarers who are embarking on a dangerous journey.
However, there was some tension as the reverse gear frozen with 10 minutes left. Blue Origin then reported that the main thruster was checked and they were ready to go.
The TV presenter said that he had been an astronaut from the time he was a young child. However, a suborbital, very short flight is what would be considered a flight of this type.
“I grew in a small mill near the town centre because my grandfathers were millers. At the time, I thought that it was an orbiting space station. My mother took me to a psychologist, she said that I wasn’t well as a child,” the presenter recently recalled in an interview with this newspaper as part of promoting this great adventure that began after the wish for him to try this was expressed by the former CEO of Mediaset España, Paolo Vasile.
Of course there followed a special programme featuring the launch, hosted by news anchors María Casado and Carlos Franganillo. They told Calleja’s story in the New Shepard Rocket, which is owned by Blue Origin (the owner of Amazon) and the Spanish TV network Mediaset.
Prime Video and Cuatro have already broadcast the documentary. The two first chapters, which showed Calleja’s process of preparation and his friends’ reactions, were not very successful on Mediaset’s 2nd channel. In fact, they only achieved a 5% share in the Monday night slot.
Calleja was accompanied by four businessmen each paying around a dollar million. Lane Bess was one of the four. The others were Dr Richard Scott, Elaine Chia Hyde & Tushar Shah. In total, 52 people have been on similar flights with this rocket.
