Michael Strahan prepares for historic mission to space on Blue Origin flight

NEW YORK -- Michael Strahan is preparing for a historic mission to space on Saturday morning.

Blue Origin announced Wednesday that the "Good Morning America" co-anchor's scheduled flight aboard New Shepard was rescheduled from Thursday to Saturday due to forecasted winds.

Launch is now scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 11, at 9:45 a.m. ET/ 8:45 a.m. CT/6:45 a.m. PT.

Thursday's original launch date was intercepted by high winds.

Crew trainer Kevin Sprogue told ABC News that weather is critical for a safe landing.

"We do have launch wind limits but they tend to be much higher than the capsule limits for landing," he said.

With the delay of the launch, Strahan and his crew have more time to prepare. The crew must pass a final exam and test for everything they've learned before they can blast off.

Strahan will join Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, on the mission aboard the New Shepard, a spacecraft named after her father and the first American in space.

"I've done a lot of training camp -- but this is definitely some training like no other down here," he said after more than a decade reporting to training camp in the NFL.

The Blue Origin flight, from the company headed by Jeff Bezos, will also carry four paying customers and will be the third by the New Shepard craft this year to shuttle humans to space.

The 10-minute flight, five minutes less than Alan Shepard's 1961 Mercury flight, will launch from West Texas carrying six people, two more than the previous two flights this year with humans aboard.

Similar to previous jaunts, Strahan's flight is likely to include about three minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curvature of the earth.

Passengers are subjected to nearly 6 G's, or six times the force of earth's gravity, as the capsule descends.

Strahan said he's bringing several prized possessions onboard.

"I am taking my retired Giants jersey, my Hall of Fame ring, my Super Bowl ring, some special watches and the most special thing to me when my father passed away and had his military funeral," the shell casings that he said were fired from the gun, "I'm taking those with me to outer space."

Strahan continued, "My dad was a paratrooper and, you know, hopefully I'm staying in the ship. He jumped out of planes but it makes me feel closer to him so I love my dad and that's for my pops."

He added that he's bringing his grandfather's pocket watch that was given to him by his mom to get repaired, but Strahan thought, "I had to keep it to bring it with me to space before I get it repaired."

The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.