Close
KTAR.com
News
Shows
Blogs
KTAR News on 92.3FM

Meet the man who won a trip to space and gave it to a friend

Kyle Hippchen, a Florida-based airline captain, poses for a photo at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Hippchen, the real winner of a first-of-its-kind sweepstakes, gave his seat on a SpaceX flight to his college roommate. Though his secret is finally out, that doesn’t make it any easier knowing he missed his chance to orbit Earth because he exceeded the weight limit. (AP Photo/John Raoux) FILE - In this photo made available by SpaceX, from left, Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Jared Isaacman and Hayley Arceneaux sit in the Dragon capsule at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, during a dress rehearsal for the upcoming launch. Sembroski offered to take personal items into space for the original winner, Kyle Hippchen. Hippchen gathered his high school and college rings, airline captain epaulettes, a great-uncle’s Purple Heart, and odds and ends from his best friends from high school, warning, “Don’t ask any details.” (SpaceX via AP) This selfie photo provided by Chris Sembroski shows him, right, with Kyle Hippchen on April 21, 2021. Hippchen says Sembroski is the one person “who lives and breathes” space stuff like he does. (Chris Sembroski via AP) Kyle Hippchen, a Florida-based airline captain who was the winner of a SpaceX sweepstakes, poses for a photo at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Hippchen and Chris Sembroski roomed together in the late 1990s while attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. They’d pile into cars with other student space geeks and make the hourlong drive south for NASA’s shuttles launches. They also belonged to a space advocacy group, marching to Washington to push commercial space travel. (AP Photo/John Raoux) This photo provided by Kyle Hippchen shows him, right, with Chris Sembroski near launch complex 39A in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 21, 2021. Hippchen says Sembroski is the one person “who lives and breathes” space stuff like he does. (Courtesy Kyle Hippchen via AP) Kyle Hippchen, a Florida-based airline captain, poses for a photo in front of a SpaceX Dragon capsule at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Hippchen, the real winner of a first-of-its-kind sweepstakes, gave his seat on a SpaceX flight to his college roommate. Though his secret is finally out, that doesn’t make it any easier knowing he missed his chance to orbit Earth because he exceeded the weight limit. (AP Photo/John Raoux)