Blue Origin has launched its new spacecraft for the first time. The company's founder, Jeff Bezos, was also on board.
A historic event for space tourism took place — the first manned launch of the newest New Shepard spacecraft created by Blue Origin. The capsule landed successfully shortly after launch. During the launch, it reached a 100-kilometer altitude.
New Shepard was launched from the Corn Ranch launch pad in Texas. The crew included billionaire Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Damen.
Damen became the youngest astronaut to go into space, and Wally Funk became the oldest. A woman broke John Glenn's record, which he set at the age of 77, by going into space on the Discovery shuttle. The mission is also notable for being the first manned space flight from the territory of Texas.
The first manned launch of the New Shepard spacecraft
Image Source: Blue Origin
On the eve of the start, the team underwent many hours of training. It included safety briefings, flight simulations, an overview of the rocket and the principle of operation of its systems, as well as instructions on moving in a capsule in zero gravity.
Rocket landing
Image Source: Blue Origin
The previous launch of New Shepard was made in April. Like almost all tests of the ship, the tests were successful.
Rocket and capsule
Image Source: Blue Origin
Blue Origin planned to start selling tickets in 2019 and launch the first customers in 2020. However, this was prevented, among other things, by the coronavirus pandemic.
New Shepard
Image Source: Blue Origin
New Shepard is a manned capsule that launches vertically using a single-stage reusable rocket. The capsule lands with the help of parachutes, and the carrier lands using a single engine.
Recently, another important event for the development of space tourism took place: the launch of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, on board of which, among others, was Richard Branson. The recording of the broadcast can be viewed on our website.
And although the purpose of the ships is similar, conceptually New Shepard and SpaceShipTwo are seriously different. The latter is a suborbital ship, which is launched by the method of air launch from a carrier aircraft. There can be two pilots and six passengers on board.
Until recently, plans for the development of private space tourism were also hatched in Russia. The company "KosmoKurs" wanted to create a ship and a special cosmodrome. In the spring , it became known about its closure. Among the reasons are financial difficulties.
