Blue Origin launch today: UNC student Karsen Kitchen to become youngest woman to cross Karman Line, enter outer space

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A UNC student will achieve one of her lifelong goals Thursday morning by going into space.

Karsen Kitchen is one of six crew members for Blue Origin’s New Shepard 26 flight, which is scheduled to launch Thursday, Aug. 29 at 8 a.m.

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 will make 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.

The crew will spend six minutes in space — where they will be weightless and hopefully have a clear view of Earth.

While she may become the youngest woman to cross the Karman Line, she won’t 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.