jeff bezos touches space aboard blue origin rocket

#Jeff bezos touches space aboard blue origin rocket windows

Upon landing, the celebrations began: Mr Daemen said he felt 'unbelievably good', while Mr Bezos declared: 'Best. However, the space plane did not cross the line into space, although Sir Richard was still awarded astronaut wings, since the US recognises space at a height of 50 miles, rather than 62 miles for the Karman line.Īfter three minutes of weightlessness, the crew returned to their seats, falling back down to earth before two sets of parachutes slowed their capsule to its landing point. It flew higher than Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, who took a flight to the very edge of space just nine days earlier. It crossed the so-called Karman line, considered to be the boundary of space by international space agencies. It accelerated to 2,223mph, before reaching an apogee of 347,563 feet. With only a small delay, the rocket took off at 2.15pm UK time, 8.15pm in Texas. They also took Mr Daemen, a Dutch student who was gifted the place after the mystery winner of a $28m auction for a ticket pulled out due to a 'scheduling' conflict. She originally trained to be an astronaut in the 1960s, but along with female applicants was rejected despite passing all Nasa's tests. On board, Blue Origin took Ms Funk, making history as the oldest person in space. The company's rocket, New Shepard, had made 15 previous flights prior to today's launch, but it was its first including a crew complement. The flight was two decades in the making for Mr Bezos, a long time space fanatic and fan of Star Trek, who founded Blue Origin in 2000. Mr Bezos, 57, said he was 'happy, happy, happy' as the vehicle floated above the earth. The booster and capsule will then land separately, with the capsule landing in the west Texas desert with the help of parachutes.The four experienced a brief period of weightlessness on flight, which lasted ten minutes and ten seconds, whooping and cheering as they floated in orbit for a period of around three minutes. A gumdrop-shaped Crew Capsule tops the booster with space for six passengers inside and large windows.Īfter reaching the Karman line, the capsule will detach from the booster, allowing those inside to view the curvature of the earth and experience weightlessness. The five-storey-tall New Shepard rocket, named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, is designed to launch a crew capsule with seats for six roughly 340,000 feet into the sky toward the edge of space. “Wishing the entire team a successful and safe flight from all of us,” Virgin Galactic said in a tweet on Tuesday.īezos’ flight is touted as the world’s first unpiloted suborbital flight. It climbed nearly 86 km above the Earth’s surface. Branson’s flight, however, did not go beyond the Karman Line.

“Today marks the first time in history that a commercial company will launch a privately-funded and built spacecraft from a private launch range with astronauts on board,” Blue Origin shared in a tweet before the launch.īezos’ flight follows Richard Branson’s flight to the edge of space aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity on July 11. We just feel really good about it,” he added.

I want to know what we’re going to learn,” Bezos, 57, was quoted as saying in the “CBS This Morning” programme on Tuesday. Jeff said that he is not nervous, but excited.

The Karman line, 100 km above the ground, is the internationally recognised boundary of space. Astronauts will experience three to four minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth in their space capsule. The rocket aims to fly beyond the Karman line and the trip will last approximately 11 minutes from launch to capsule landing. New Shepard, built by Bezos’ company Blue Origin, is designed to serve the burgeoning market for space tourism.

#Jeff bezos touches space aboard blue origin rocket windows

They travelled in a capsule with the biggest windows flown in space, offering stunning views of the Earth. New Shepard launched its first human flight, NS-16, from Launch Site One in West Texas at 9 am EDT (6.30 pm IST). Billionaire Jeff Bezos launched to the edge of space on Tuesday along with his brother Mark, 82-year-old female aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen, in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard.