The rocket from Jeff Bezos’ company, New Shepard, successfully carried six new space tourists into space on Saturday, during a ten-minute flight.
Blue Origin’s rocket ship New Shepard successfully took six new space tourists into space on Saturday, on a ten-minute flight marking the fifth successful manned mission for Jeff Bezos’ company. The takeoff took place 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 carrying the six passengers gently landed in a vast arid plain bathed in sunlight. The flight featured the first Mexican-born woman in space on board. Katya Echazarreta, born in Guadalajara, came to the United States when she was seven years old. Now 26, she has also become the youngest American to go into space.
Ticket prices are unknown.
This engineer was sponsored by the program “Space for Humanity», which aims to democratize access to space and selected her from 7,000 applicants. The crew also included the second Brazilian in space, Victor Correa Hespanha, as well as businessmen Hamish Harding, Jaison Robinson, Victor Vescovo and Evan Dick. The latter had already made the trip during the third manned flight of New Shepard, last December. The price paid by space tourists to board is not known.
The capsule and its passengers were propelled by a launcher, which detached once its mission was completed and came to re-land on a runway, so that it could be used again. The capsule continued its trajectory until it exceeded the Karman line, at an altitude of 100 km, which marks the border of space according to international convention. Up there, passengers were able to 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 down in particular by three huge parachutes before touching the ground gently. The flight was originally scheduled to take place on May 20, but was postponed.out of precautionafter an anomaly detected on the rocket. The company did not provide further details on this issue.
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Jeff Bezos had himself participated in New Shepard’s first manned flight in July 2021. Since then, the machine has also transported the actor playing the iconic 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 flight of its founder, the Briton Richard Branson, this vessel has remained on the ground to undergo modifications.