North Carolina Professor Describes 'Breathtaking' Trip To Space

A professor from North Carolina took a trip to space and has a lot to say about the "breathtaking" experience.

Jim Kitchen, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was one of six who took part in the fourth manned crew on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin flight to the edge of space, WRAL reports. After the initial flight was pushed back by a few days, the launch on Thursday (March 31) was delayed even further due to high winds before the rocket officially lifted off at 10 a.m.

"That was an out-of-body experience," Kitchen said when he touched back down to Earth. "This was pushing that final boundary, going to space. I was thinking on the way up, you're going 2,300 miles an hour and you feel every bit of that."

During the flight, the crew experienced about three minutes of weightlessness. Check out the video of the crew floating through the air as they look at Earth from above.

Kitchen described the moment he breached space and saw the world from new angle.

"Time stops ... It's like this moment in time you see this beautiful earth and the blackness of the universe..." he said. "It is just breathtaking."

The professor spokes with WRAL about what the trip to space means to him, saying it allowed him to achieve something he has dreamed of since he was a child.

"This has been a dream for 50 years," he said. "Paying homage to that little boy who sat in his mom's lap watching the Apollo launch when I was a kid and to those professional astronauts that blazed the trail ... keep those dreams alive and realize anything is possible."