The stubby white spacecraft with the spherical tip blasted off into brilliant blue skies over West Texas for an 11-minute journey barely beyond the globally recognised space barrier, which is 62 miles (100 kilometres) high.
Launch Site One: On Saturday, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin business launched its third private crew into space and returned them safely, this time with the daughter of the first American astronaut.
The six-person crew squealed with delight as they unbuckled and gazed out the capsule’s huge windows at space.
As Blue Origin live-streamed the flight, one anonymous crew member said, “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The spacecraft returned to Earth rapidly and landed gently in the desert, sending up a cloud of dust as it did so.
As the crew members emerged from the capsule, Bezos and other company officials hurried to greet them. Separately, and also safely, the booster rocket landed.
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in a statement, “We had a terrific flight today.”
Laura Shepard-Churchley travelled as a guest of Blue Origin, whose father Alan Shepard was the first American to visit to space in 1961.
In honour of the pioneering astronaut, the company’s suborbital rocket is called “New Shepard.”
There were four paying customers: space industry entrepreneur and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess, as well as Michael Strahan, an American football Hall of Famer turned TV personality.
Lane and Cameron Bess made history by becoming the first parent-child team to fly in space. The cost of the tickets has not been revealed.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard made US history with a 15-minute suborbital space mission, barely over a month after Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first human in space, orbiting the planet.
Shepard, who died in 1998, was the fifth of a total of 12 men to walk on the Moon.
In a video before the flight, Shepard-Churchley, who leads a charity that promotes research and provides cash for college students, said, “It’s kind of fun for me to say an original Shepard will fly on the New Shepard.” “I’m quite proud of my father’s accomplishments.”
Blue Origin has previously flown billionaire creator Jeff Bezos and Star Trek star William Shatner into space.
Bezos who build fortune with amazon.
Bezos sees a future in which humanity is distributed throughout the solar system, living and working in huge space colonies with artificial gravity.
He says that this will turn the Earth into a beautiful tourist attraction, similar to how national parks are now.
In 2021, Virgin Galactic flew its creator Richard Branson to the last frontier, and SpaceX sent four private individuals on a three-day orbital flight for charity.
- Misleading Video Alters Prime Minister Shehbaz’s Speech Targeting Political Rival, Not His Party - 21/04/2024
- ATC Grants Three-Day Remand for Suspects in Ichhra Bazaar Harassment Case - 19/03/2024
- Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh Lead World in Severe Smog Crisis, Exceeding WHO Guidelines - 19/03/2024
