“I want to cry, I’m sorry, it’s fantastic”

Jesús Calleja has made history. He is already the first Spanish astronaut to travel to space and the first man to make television outside the planet. The adventurer took off this Tuesday, February 25, at 4:49 p.m., aboard the New Shepard rocket of the Blue Origin space company. An unprecedented milestone that has been able to continue live from Telecinco by the hand of Carlos Fraganillo and María Casado, who, minutes before takeoff, have spoken with experts such as the former Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duche, and of people from the people of the Calleja environment, like her friend Mercedes Milá. “We will have to thank Paolo Vasile that moment of lucidity that he had to say: ‘You go to space'”, said the presenter. It should be remembered that this was the last project approved by the former director of the Italian Communication Group before leaving his post.

The presenter has flown with five other space tourists. “The complicated moment has been back, because when the rocket poses, the sound is not heard. When the rocket has fallen it has been like a bomb,” David Jiménez reported, special sent to the United States. Despite the delay minutes, the flight has occurred without difficulties from the launch center one of Blue Origin in the western area of ​​Texas. The trip has lasted 11 minutes.

Calleja has abandoned the capsule by its own foot and together with the rest of the astronauts around 17.10. Visibly moved and with a broken voice, he said that it has been a “fantastic” experience that has allowed him to fulfill “a dream.” “It’s fantastic. It has been a dream. It makes me want to cry. I’m sorry, but I have excited myself. It’s fantastic. It is important to be very well protected,” he said before melting into a hug with one of his companions. It is already the third Spaniard who travels to space, after Pedro Duque and Miguel López-Elegría.

The mission

Astronauts have risen beyond the karm line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognized limit of space, and have experienced several minutes of intimidity, contemplating views of the earth through windows that occupy more than a third from the surface of the capsule, which has separated from the propeller about 250,000 feet (76 km) and that has continued towards space until reaching a peak of 350,000 feet (106 km). After, The propeller has returned to the Earth and has made a precision landing on the platformapproximately two miles (3.22 km) north of the take -off point.

Next, the capsule has entered into a stable free fall back to earth. To reduce the speed of the vehicle before landing, three braking parachutes have been deployed to several thousand feet on the ground, before displaying the three main parachutes of the capsule. Just before touching the ground, a retropropulsion system has expelled an air cloud under the capsule to create a soft landing in the desert in the western area of ​​Texas.