{"id":1586,"date":"2026-06-01T12:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2026-07-01T08:58:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:58:02","slug":"blue-origin-laura-stiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/blue-origin-laura-stiles\/","title":{"rendered":"KU alumna catches concluding ride on spaceflight program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exactly eight days after flying into space\u2014what she describes as the most thrilling and life-affirming experience imaginable\u2014Laura Stiles weathered sudden deflation from back-to-back traumatic changes to her orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One was expected, at least in the abstract: The private spaceflight company Blue Origin announced it would pause its New Shepard program\u2014the reusable suborbital rocket that Stiles, e\u201908, had helped build, test and fly for more than a decade. The other was not. That same day, Percy, Stiles\u2019 constant canine companion and a familiar presence around the Blue Origin offices for nearly 13 years, was diagnosed with an incurable disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt almost felt like you couldn\u2019t have one without the other,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cA chapter is closing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles-engineer.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles-engineer.jpg 500w, https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles-engineer-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Laura Stiles and Percy<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But before the endings, there were the beginnings\u2014both of which arrived with almost no warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three days before New Shepard\u2019s Jan. 22 launch, one of the six crew members fell ill. The clock was already ticking: Final preparations, supervised by Stiles, were set to begin the next morning at Blue Origin\u2019s launch complex near the West Texas town of Van Horn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given constraints related to weight, balance and logistics, there wasn\u2019t time to find another paying customer. There was, however, someone already on-site who checked all the boxes: Stiles, the mission\u2019s director of launch operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHey, we\u2019ve got a sick customer,\u201d Stiles recalls being told. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through the flowchart. Can you go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was, for Stiles, an immediate yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOh, God, yeah,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThey knew I have always wanted to go. It\u2019s definitely been a dream, especially being in the customer-facing role for so many years and hearing people who come back from this experience and they\u2019re just completely mind-blown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stiles joined Blue Origin in 2013, when the company was still small, with just a few hundred employees. Over the years, she worked across nearly every facet of New Shepard: mechanical systems design, integrated vehicle testing, launch operations. She served as a flight controller, a CapCom (the voice communicating with the ship) and eventually as director of training and launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The compressed timeline before launch created a surreal sequence of events. Stiles called her parents\u2014Mark and Brenda, of Prairie Village\u2014to tell them she would be going to space in two days. They and a handful of other family and friends hopped on airplanes and made it to Texas in time for launch, still processing what was about to occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy mom\u2019s first comment was, \u2018I\u2019m so glad I only knew for two days,\u2019\u201d Stiles says. \u201cShe\u2019s a worrier, and that was the best way, in her opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The flight itself lasted about 10 minutes. After liftoff, the New Shepard capsule separated from its booster and continued past the K\u00e1rm\u00e1n line\u2014the internationally recognized boundary of space, about 62 miles above Earth. There, Stiles and her fellow passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness, floating freely before beginning their descent back to the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-outermost-icon-block items-justified-center\"><div class=\"icon-container\" style=\"width:48px;transform:rotate(0deg) scaleX(1) scaleY(1)\"><svg viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M18.7 3H5.3C4 3 3 4 3 5.3v13.4C3 20 4 21 5.3 21h13.4c1.3 0 2.3-1 2.3-2.3V5.3C21 4 20 3 18.7 3zm.8 15.7c0 .4-.4.8-.8.8H5.3c-.4 0-.8-.4-.8-.8V5.3c0-.4.4-.8.8-.8h13.4c.4 0 .8.4.8.8v13.4zM10 15l5-3-5-3v6z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Watch the webcast of Stiles\u2019 flight to space:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-38 Webcast\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-T_hA6mPiIY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Stiles\u2014the fifth Jayhawk to fly in space\u2014the moment carried deep resonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find things that put people in that headspace,\u201d she says, \u201creally thinking about who they are and what their role is on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now she understood, and her path to that moment began, fittingly, in Lawrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stiles grew up in Prairie Village and spent much of her childhood visiting her grandmother\u2019s home near the KU campus. She became enamored of KU, and arrived as an astronomy major; when she discovered engineering physics at the department of physics and astronomy\u2019s welcome-to-campus meeting, she switched. Her father, an engineer, approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c\u2018I think you should do this,\u2019\u201d she recalls him saying. \u201cA very dad thing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The work was intense\u2014long nights in the lab and a social life that mostly consisted of attending KU men\u2019s basketball games, at which her four-year attendance record was, of course, spotless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because Stiles excelled under rigorous academic stress, opportunity came her way. She won a NASA internship, during which she was introduced to skydiving; Stiles, an avid outdoors- woman, is now a certified instructor and world record holder in large-formation skydiving. She also worked on a research project with her physics lab professor, Michael Murray, that took her to Switzerland, installing hardware inside the Large Hadron Collider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s still kind of mind-blowing,\u201d she says. \u201cAt 20 years old, being in that tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stiles completed her graduate studies in Boulder, Colorado, then joined Blue Origin through a graduate rotation program. In those early years, the company\u2019s small size meant broad exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou see the entire life cycle,\u201d she says. \u201cYou design a part, you go find a vendor, you pick it up, you help install it, you help refurbish it. It gives you great footing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If New Shepard was her professional constant, Percy was her personal one. Colleagues knew Percy well enough that he was mentioned during the Blue Origin webcast of her flight. Smart, emotionally attuned and endlessly present, Percy was part of the Blue Origin culture Stiles helped build\u2014a workplace defined, she says, by close-knit teams and a strong sense of care for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles.jpg 500w, https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/Laura-Stiles-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Facing a long wait for adoptable border collies in Colorado, Laura Stiles flew into action the moment she learned of a rescue available for pickup at a Wyoming truck stop, just a few hours north of her Boulder home. For a $15 fee and half a tank of gas, she and very good boy Percy began their constant companionship of nearly 13 years.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is what made the timing of Percy\u2019s diagnosis feel so profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The January announcement that New Shepard would pause operations\u2014redirecting resources toward NASA\u2019s unexpectedly redesigned schedule of lunar missions, in which Blue Origin hopes to participate\u2014was significant on its own. The program had flown 38 missions and carried 98 people to space, serving as a proving ground for reusable rocket technology and human spaceflight operations. For Stiles, it represented 13 years of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the same day, Percy\u2019s cancer diagnosis reframed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn some ways, it feels sort of universal,\u201d she says. \u201cLike they were tied together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What comes next is, by her own admission, uncertain. Blue Origin\u2019s focus is shifting toward lunar exploration, part of a broader push to return humans to the moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe exciting part is we don\u2019t even know what all the opportunities are yet,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cThere are companies now that couldn\u2019t have existed 10 years ago, so who knows what\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Chris Lazzarino, j\u201986, is associate editor of Crimson &amp; Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 id=\"h-photos-courtesy-of-laura-stiles\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Photos courtesy of Laura Stiles<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aerospace engineer Laura Stiles traveled to space in January aboard New Shepard, the Blue Origin rocket she helped develop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-jayhawks","tag-school-of-engineering"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.9 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>KU alumna catches concluding ride on spaceflight program - Crimson &amp; 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