Six Tourists Flown To Space In Million-dollar Mission With Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos's company Blue Origin flew six tourists into space for a 10-minute ride on Saturday, successfully carrying out its fifth crewed mission.The white spacecraft New Shepard lifted off with a roar from a desert spot in west Texas at 8:26 local time (1326 GMT). A Blue Origin webcast showed as the rocket reached space, and the crew hooted with glee.
The company led by Jeff Bezos is slowly cutting a big chunk of the newly emerged space tourism market as it ferries private customers to the edge of space and returns them.
The flight included engineer Katya Echazarreta, who at 26 became the youngest American woman in space. The Guadalajara native also became the first Mexican-born woman to go into space.
Her spot was sponsored by Space for Humanity, a program that seeks to democratize access to space, and selected from among 7,000 candidates.??
The flight did not only carry the first Egyptian but also the first person from Portugal and British-American mountaineer Vanessa O¡¯Brien, who Blue Origin says will become the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air. Vanessa will complete the Explorers¡¯ Extreme Trifecta, a Guinness World Record.
The crew also included the first Brazilian to go into space, Victor Correa Hespanha, as well as businessmen Hamish Harding, Jaison Robinson, Victor Vescovo and Evan Dick.
Dick also flew on New Shepard's third crewed flight in December.Ticket prices are a closely guarded secret.
The gumdrop-shaped capsule holding the crew detached from the rocket once the latter took them into the heavens.The rocket booster part then eased down vertically, letting off a sonic boom at one point, and landed to be reused.
The capsule kept going up until it crossed the so-called Karman line at an altitude of about 100 km (60 miles), which is considered the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space by international convention.At that height, the crew experienced weightlessness for a few minutes and could observe Earth's curvature through big windows in New Shepard.
The capsule then fell back to Earth, with three giant parachutes and retro engines helping it make a gentle landing that kicked up a big cloud of dust.This flight had been scheduled for May 20 but was delayed because of a problem with one of the spacecraft's backup systems. Blue Origin did not give details of the problem.
Blue Origin is a leading player in the nascent space tourism market.It flew Bezos on its maiden crewed flight in July 2021?and has also flown Star Trek icon William Shatner and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of the first American in space.
Blue Origin's competitor for this kind of thing is Virgin Galactic.But since its maiden voyage last July carrying its founder, the business tycoon Richard Branson, the spacecraft has stayed on the ground to undergo modifications.
For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit?Indiatimes News.
