Youngest woman makes space history on Blue Origin's space flight

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- A University of North Carolina student achieved one of her lifelong goals Thursday morning by going into space.

Karsen Kitchen, 21, was one of six crew members for Blue Origin's New Shepard 26 flight, which launched around 9 a.m. E.T.

The flight took just over 10 minutes launching the crew at a maximum velocity of 2,238 miles per hour.

The crew experienced zero gravity for more than a minute and then the capsule returned back to Earth safely.

Kitchen said going to space has been a dream of hers for years.

"I have so many memories of going out side when I was younger, looking up at the night sky. I would come in and be like 'Y'all, I want to be an astronaut,'" Kitchen said. "I feel so grateful and It feels unreal. I still feel like I really haven't processed it all."

What's even more incredible is that Kitchen's flight made her the youngest woman to ever cross the Karman Line, which is the border between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space.

Kitchen is a senior at UNC. She also previously interned with Blue Origin, a commercial space flight company and manufacturer founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. She also previously worked at UNC's UNC's Morehead Planetarium for a summer and recently founded a new initiative to encourage women to seek careers involving space called Orbitelle.

"I'm doing this for all the young women out there that think that they can't do it. Who think that can't have a job in space. I want to inspire as many people as I possibly can," Kitchen said.

She is the youngest woman to cross the Karman Line, but she's not be the first person in her family to do it. Kitchen's father, Jim Kitchen (who is a professor at UNC), was a passenger on the New Shepard 20 flight in 2022.

He was on the ground to greet her when she returned to Earth. They shared a terrestrial hug and will forever share the memories of leaving Earth's atmosphere.