Former Royals manager Ned Yost thinks suborbital space flights are suboptimal

During the 2019 Royals season, then-manager Ned Yost regaled and informed the media about the Apollo missions that led up to and included the first moon landing in 1969.

While on SiriusXM earlier this month, Yost was asked about the suborbital space flights planned by billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.

On Tuesday, Bezos and three others reached an altitude of more than 65 miles during an 11-minute ride on a capsule and rocket, as CNN noted.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic flight on July 11 traveled more than 50 miles above the earth, NBC News reported.

The combined distance traveled by Bezos and Branson is more than 238,000 miles fewer than Yost wants to travel.

“You know, I’m not interested in suborbital flight, I want to go to the moon, I want to be on that trip in 2024,” Yost said on MLB Network Radio. “Suborbital 90 minutes? No way. I either want to go to the International Space Station for six months or I want to go to the moon. I just think that that would be fantastic.”

Yost, 66, still gazes at the moon and wonders what it would be like to follow Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and 10 others to step foot on the lunar surface.

“Every time I look at the moon, I’m like man that place would be so much fun to go and just explore,” Yost said. “But ... suborbital they can have it. They can have their suborbital. I want to go for the long haul. ...

“I can go to Six Flags and do a 90-second (ride). I can do all that at Disney World. I want to go to the moon.”

Here is Yost on suborbital space flights.