During the next launch of the New Shepard spacecraft, Chris Boshuizen, Glen Devries and two other unknown space tourists will be on board. According to some reports, among them is the actor William Shatner, known for the TV series Star Trek.
On October 12, the second launch of the New Shepard ship from Blue Origin will take place with people on board. Today, the company announced the names of two tourists.
One of them will be Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, which develops and produces CubeSat satellites and delivers them to space as a passing load of other launches.
The second participant of the NS-18 mission was Glen de Vries, an employee of the French company Dassault Systemes and co-founder of Medidata.
The other two astronauts will be announced in the coming days. Note that the other day the tabloid TMZ, citing sources, reported that, among others, the Canadian actor William Shatner, known for the role of Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series, will fly on the ship.
William Shatner
Image source: wikipedia
If this information is correct, Shatner will become the oldest person who has ever been in space: on March 22, the actor turned 90 years old. It will break the record of 82-year-old Wally Funk, who became a participant in the first manned flight of New Shepard.
That historic mission took place on July 20. In addition to Funk, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and 18-year-old Oliver Damen were on board the ship. The latter also set a record by becoming the youngest astronaut.
In total, New Shepard completed 17 starts, only one of which was not fully successful. The last launch for today was carried out on August 25: there were no people on board then.
The ship is a capsule that launches vertically using a reusable launch vehicle. After the launch, the carrier sits down with the help of its engine, while the capsule lands with the help of a parachute system.
New Shepard
Image Source: Blue Origin
New Shepard is not the only space project of Jeff Bezos Corporation. Now the company is working on a more ambitious initiative aimed at creating a reusable New Glenn heavy class carrier. It is assumed that it will be able to compete with SpaceX's Starship.