There’s a long history of failed attempts to put American journalists in space. Now, Michael Strahan is going

Shortly before Jeff Bezos flew to space in July, “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan was one of the few journalists who got to ask the billionaire directly why he was going. Space journalists of the day felt they had a “divine right” to be among the first civilians in space as well, as Alan Ladwig, former manager of NASA’s Space Flight Participant Program, put it in his book “See You in Orbit?” Ladwig’s team set up the Journalists in Space program in October 1985. “Forty people went through this big selection process and then NASA Administrator decides ‘No, I’m going to fly Miles ’ … They were not happy about that at all.” “It was a horrible day on so many levels, but the thing I couldn’t really share with anybody was that I knew in an instant that was the end of my dream.” Miles O'Brien, CNN aerospace analyst and PBS NewsHour science correspondent But the Shuttle program was thrown into limbo yet again when the Space Shuttle Columbia was torn apart during reentry on February 1, 2003, killing seven astronauts. “It was a horrible day on so many levels, but the thing I couldn’t really share with anybody was that I knew in an instant that was the end of my dream.” Strahan’s flight NASA’s Shuttle program has been retired for a decade, and the space industry has been commercialized. When explaining the arrangement to his GMA co-anchors on air last month, Strahan said Blue Origin “approached me and they asked if I wanted to be a crew member, and without hesitation, I said, ‘Yes.’” Though Strahan may not be a hard news reporter like Cronkite or an expert space journalist, O’Brien told CNN Business that he sees value in sending someone like the former football player turned TV personality into space.