Palmetto Senior High Excited To Watch Alumni Jeff Bezos Rocket Into Space
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - When Amazon's executive chairman Jeff Bezos launches into space on Tuesday, those at Palmetto Senior High School in Pinecrest will be watching one of their own with pride.
"It's amazing to think that someone from our public school here in Miami is going up to space, it's just incredible. We are so excited and we are proud and we can't wait to see it," said Katie Abbott.
She is a Pinecrest City commissioner and part of the Alumni group from Palmetto. She said Bezos isn't the first Palmetto Alum to make it into space.
"We have a prior alumnus whose name is Dominic Gorie. He worked for NASA. He is now retired, but he went to the International Space Station and on other missions. We are just as proud of him as we are of Mr. Bezos," she said.
Graduating in the early 1980s, Bezos was top of his class as the Valedictorian, as well as President of the school's Science Honor Society.
School superintendent Alberto Carvalho tweeted, "Inspired by our teachers Jeff Bezos was taught to always reach for the unimaginable."
Mark Bennett is an astronomer at the Frost Planetarium in Miami. He explained that choosing the blast-off date of July 20 is not by chance.
"It's happening on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing. The capsule is named the 'New Shepard' which is in honor of Alan Shepard who's the first American in space," Bennett said.
Bennett also believes this is the beginning of a new chapter in space flight.
"It's making space travel more normalized. Right now it is for tourists who can afford it, but it makes it more easily accessible. Just like when airplanes were first developed, at first it was only a very few that could fly then eventually everybody got to go in airplanes and fly," he said.
The launch is set for Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. local time from Van Horn, Texas.