Marc and Sharon Hagle become first married couple on a commercial space flight

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University alumnus Marc Hagle and his wife, Sharon, can add “first married couple on a commercial space flight” to their list of accomplishments and bucket-list goals attained.

The Hagles launched on Thursday (March 31) from Van Horn, Texas, on Blue Origin’s 20th flight of its New Shepard rocket, a reusable vehicle that launches upright from Earth and lands upright on the ground. The Hagles were two of a six-person crew on an 11-minute flight that reached a velocity of more than three times the speed of sound and traveled 62 miles above Earth.

The flight also makes Marc Hagle the latest Purdue graduate in space.

“I’m proud to be in a long line of Purdue graduates advancing the mission of exploring the galaxy,” says Marc, citing the university’s reputation as the “Cradle of Astronauts.”

Nearly one-third of all U.S. spaceflights have included a Purdue graduate.

Marc earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1971 and a master’s degree in business and industrial administration in 1972. He is the CEO of Tricor International LLC and one of Central Florida’s most successful real estate developers. Marc and Sharon Hagle are the lead donors to Marc and Sharon Hagle Hall, which opens later this year as the new home of Purdue Bands & Orchestras on the West Lafayette campus.

The couple, who live in Winter Park, Florida, traveled the world to prepare for their flight. They completed zero-gravity training at Kennedy Space Center, centrifuge training at NASTAR in Philadelphia, and the Russian Cosmonaut Space Training Program in Star City, Russia.

Marc’s dream of traveling into space began when he was a child watching satellite launches from his Florida home. “As a kid, you’re just amazed at what you’re watching,” he says. “I’m sure that influenced how I went forward.”

Sharon Hagle shares her space training experiences with almost 900 schoolchildren at the 2019 Purdue Space Day. (Purdue University photo/Vincent Walter) Download image

Sharon founded SpaceKids Global (SKG) in 2015 to advance space awareness for school children, especially young girls. The couple is collaborating with Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s STEM-focused nonprofit, on Club’s “Postcards to Space” program to engage elementary school students in STEAM+ (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics, and environment) activities that can encourage careers in space exploration and technology.

As CEO of SpaceKids Global, Sharon partnered with Purdue’s College of Engineering for the 2019 Purdue Space Day, where she talked with seventh- and eighth-graders about her planned space travel and encouraged them to overcome adversity to follow their dreams. To date, SpaceKids has reached more than 100,000 students.

About SpaceKids Global

Sharon Hagle founded SpaceKids Global in 2015 to inspire STEAM+ (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics environment) education, with a focus on empowering young girls. SpaceKids Global is on a mission to ensure every child is ready to enter the space age. For more information, visit http://www.spacekids.global/.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to today’s toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/.

Media contact: Jim Bush, 765-336-1909, jsbush@purdue.edu