Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, successfully launched its fourth space tourism mission on Thursday, taking six passengers into space. The trip, which lasted 10 minutes and 4 seconds, is another important milestone for Blue Origin, one of the leading companies in the rapidly growing private space sector.
The trip made this Thursday was the 20and mission of New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket system, named after astronaut Alan Shepard. The New Shepard reached a maximum rate of climb of 2,236 mph.
The crew capsule reached an apogee of 106 km AGL (above ground), just passing the Kármán line, which is recognized as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.
Probably outrageous prices
The crew included five wealthy clients, as well as Blue Origin’s chief architect, Gary Lai. Businessman Marty Allen, real estate developer Marc Hagle and his wife Sharon Hagle, who founded the non-profit organization SpaceKids Global, entrepreneur Jim Kitchen and Dr. George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies, joined with Gary Lai. The amount paid by Blue Origin travelers to complete this once-in-a-lifetime odyssey has not been disclosed.
As a reminder, Jeff Bezos himself was part of the crew of the first human flight of the New Shepard, carried out last year. He was with his younger brother Mark Bezos, aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. The following two voyages made headlines for their famous crew members, including William Shatner and the host of Good Morning America Michael Strahan. Comedian Pete Davidson was scheduled to take part in New Shepard’s fourth human mission, but he scrapped his preparations earlier this month.
Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin’s competitor, launched its first crewed spaceflight last July, with founder Richard Branson on board, edging out Blue Origin in space. However, Virgin Galactic has not flown any crewed missions since then.