Spanish daredevil TV presenter upon returning from space: 'How lucky we are to have this planet'

Adventurer Jesús Calleja burst into tears when he got out of the capsule in which he became the third Spaniard to launch into space, describing Earth as "fantastic and wonderful"

Iker Cortés

Madrid

Thursday, 27 February 2025, 19:11

Jesús Calleja, the 59-year-old Spanish TV presenter from Fresno de la Vega (León), has fulfilled his childhood dream of space travel. The adventurer achieved his lifelong dream on Tuesday with a short, ten-minute flight in the New Shepard, a rocket belonging to aeronautical company Blue Origin.

His arrival back to Earth made him the third Spaniard to travel into space after astronauts Pedro Duque and Miguel López-Alegría. Calleja, who comes from León, was the second person to exit the capsule with his arms outstretched in victory, shouting out loud and wearing a radiant smile; then, just a couple of minutes later, his emotions got the better of him and tears flowed in front of the cameras.

"It's fantastic and wonderful, the Earth is beautiful," said Calleja after hugging his brother Kike, who was there to greet him.

"It's hard to explain and the [Earth's] atmosphere is such a small line," he said, gesturing with his fingers. "It's been my dream since I was a child... I feel like crying.... I feel like crying... I'm sorry, I get emotional, it's been very special," explained the man who burst into tears whilst stating these first words after touchdown together with the other five crew members in the cockpit.

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Hours later, Calleja attended a packed online press conference where he still struggled to find the words to describe what he had seen more than 100 kilometres up in the air.

"When you get up there, it's so overwhelming and sublime to see the planet we live on. It's such an extraordinarily intense bright blue.... And space is such a deep black, that the first thing I thought is how lucky we are to have this planet," he said. He went on: "All this geopolitical bullshit we have and the conflicts would evaporate if those in charge had a chance to see it," he said, while stressing not to deplete the resources "of our home".

With an ascent in which the 5G forces took his body from weighing 60 kilos to more than 300, the daredevil explained that during the climb "you are being shaken all the time and it feels like you are falling apart."

Calleja acknowledged that during these days leading up to the launch he has managed the fear well, but that not being in control, like when he pilots a helicopter himself, has worried him a little more.

Then he added an anecdote: "When I reached weightlessness and took off my harness and safety belts, I turned around without realising I had and thought something was wrong because I thought the capsule was upside down, when it was actually me who was upside down."

The mountaineer hasn't even had time to put a name to what he has done, but he is clear that he was not just a space tourist because "I have gone into space to work."

A suborbital flight

Some 20 minutes behind schedule, New Shepard lifted off from Blue Origin's West Texas facility at about 4.50pm, executing a flight that lasted just over ten minutes and reached a maximum speed of 3,600 kilometres per hour - "faster than a speeding bullet", said Calleja.

The fully autonomous capsule separated from the booster at about 250,000 feet (76 kilometres high) and continued into space until it reached an apogee of 345,300 feet (just over 105 kilometres high), passing the so-called Kármán Line at about 100 kilometres, the internationally recognised limit of space, after 3 minutes 32 seconds. For about three minutes, the crew enjoyed breathtaking views and weightlessness with their restraints unbuckled.

Meanwhile, the rocket booster began its descent, first in free fall and then slowed by the back thrusters to a perfect and quiet landing on a pad approximately two miles (3.22 km) north of the launch point at 4.58pm.

Just a couple of minutes later the capsule, which had already entered a stable free-fall, was visible from the ground. At an altitude of about 2,000 feet the three braking parachutes were deployed, followed by the deployment of the three main parachutes. Just before touchdown, a retropropulsion system ejected a cloud of air under the capsule to create a soft landing in the desert, creating a considerable dust cloud in the surrounding area.

Afterwards, several members of the support team approached the site to place a ladder to allow the six crew members to leave after a perfectly 'out of this world' experience. The hours leading up to the flight had also been calm. With clear skies there was nothing to suggest that the trip was at risk. In fact, the company had released to the media some images of the crew sounding a bell before entering the capsule that would take them to the stars, a custom more akin to seafarers departing on a risky journey and adventure.

There was, however, some tension when the reverse gear froze with ten minutes to go. Subsequently, Blue Origin reported that they were good to go because the main thruster had been checked.

The TV presenter has said on several occasions that he has been an astronaut ever since he was a child, although the exact definition of a flight like this would be classed as a very short, suborbital flight.

"I grew up in a mill on the outskirts of town, because my grandparents were millers, thinking it was a space station in the middle of the planet. My mother took me to a psychologist, she said that I wasn't well as a child," the presenter recently recalled in an interview with this newspaper as part of promoting this great adventure that began after the wish for him to try this was expressed by the former CEO of Mediaset España, Paolo Vasile.

Of course there followed a special programme featuring the launch, hosted by news anchors María Casado and Carlos Franganillo. They retold Calleja's adventures in the New Shepard rocket, owned by the space company Blue Origin that in turn is owned by Jeff Bezos (owner of Amazon), with whom the Spanish TV company Mediaset has teamed up to produce a documentary series recounting the adventurer's experience.

The documentary can already be seen on Prime Video and Cuatro. However, the first two chapters already broadcast, which show Calleja's preparation process and the reactions of his family and friends, have not achieved great figures on Mediaset's second channel, as they did not reach 5% share on the Monday night scheduled slots.

Flying alongside Calleja were four businessmen who had paid around a million dollars apiece. They are Lane Bess, Elaine Chia Hyde, Dr Richard Scott and Tushar Shah. So far 52 people have travelled on 10 similar flights aboard this rocket.

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