Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard rocket successfully launched six new space tourists during a 10-minute flight on Saturday.
Blue Origin’s rocket ship New Shepard successfully launched six new space tourists on Saturday, in a 10-minute flight that marks the fifth successful human mission for Jeff Bezos’ company. Launch occurred at 8:26 a.m. local time (1:26 p.m. GMT) from West Texas.
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After a ten-minute flight, the capsule and six passengers landed gently on a wide, dry plain bathed in sunlight. Aboard the flight was the first Mexican-born woman in space. Katya Echazarreta was born in Guadalajara and came to the United States when she was seven years old. At 26, she is also the youngest American to go into space.
Ticket prices are unknown.
The engineer was funded by the “Space for Humanity” program, which aims to democratize access to space, and was selected from 7,000 applicants. The crew also included the second Brazilian in space, Victor Correa Hespanha, and businessmen Hamish Harding, Jaison Robinson, Victor Vescovo and Evan Dick. The latter had already made the trip during New Shepard’s third manned flight last December. The price that space tourists pay for boarding is not known.
The capsule and its passengers were propelled by a launch vehicle, which detached upon completion of its mission and re-landed on an airstrip so it could be used again. The capsule continued on its trajectory until it crossed the Karman Line at an altitude of 100 km, which according to international convention marks the limit of space. Up there, the passengers could experience weightlessness for a few moments and see the curvature of the earth through large portholes.
The capsule then began a free fall to fall back to earth, slowed in particular by three huge parachutes before gently touching the ground. The flight was originally scheduled to take place on May 20 but was postponed “out of sheer caution” after an anomaly was discovered on the rocket. The company did not provide any further information on this topic.
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Jeff Bezos himself took part in New Shepard’s first manned flight in July 2021. Since then, the machine has also transported the actor who plays the legendary Captain Kirk of the Star Trek series, William Shatner, or Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of the first American to go into space. Blue Origin’s main competitor for this type of suborbital flight is Virgin Galactic. But since last July and the escape of its founder, Briton Richard Branson, this ship has been grounded to undergo modifications.