Jeff Bezos to Blast Off to Space Aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard
On Tuesday, July 20, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is making flight history as he is set to take off in a fully automated spacecraft after Blue Origin finally cleared the New Shepard rocket and capsule for launch.
The mission will be New Shepard's 16th flight, but this will be the first time that it would carry humans aboard. The mission dubbed the 'First Human Flight' will carry Bezos along with three other civilians and would blast off at 9:00 AM EDT from the company's Launch Site One near Van Horn, Texas.
According to Space.com, the launch will be broadcasted on Tuesday from 7:30 AM EDT on their website and also at BlueOrigin.com. While the liftoff is expected to happen at 9:00 AM, it could still change depending on technical matters and weather conditions.
The New Shepard
The New Shepard is expected to reach a higher altitude than the Richard Branson's winged space plane that took him in his Virgin Galactic flight. Moreover, the New Shepard capsule offers a great view of the Earth, which will be around 62 miles below it since it is equipped with the largest windows that were ever built into a spacecraft.
In addition to the amazing view, the capsule is also equipped with a flight-tested abort system designed to immediately propel the ship and the flight crew away from any malfunctioning boosted, CBS News reported.
The same as what Branson did before him, the presence of the Amazon CEO in the first manned flight of New Shepard is to show the public his confidence in the capsule's readiness to start sub-orbital flights for those who can afford to become space tourists and government researchers. Before the first manned flight, the New Shepard has had 15 successful unpiloted blast-offs.
The Crew
The 'First Human Flight' in the New Shepard will carry four people, however, there will be no pilot since the spacecraft is run by an automated system, Yahoo! News reported. The people who will be in the flight are:
Jeff Bezos, a 57-year-old tycoon who founded Amazon.com and also founded Blue Origin in 2000.
Mark Bezos, the younger brother of Jeff Bezos who is also a millionaire. According to Business Insider, Mark is a former ad executive who is a part of a leadership council for the non-profit organization Robin Hood.
Wally Funk, 82 years old. Funk is one of the pioneering female aviators who was part of the famous Mercury 13. The Mercury 13 are the women who were tested by NASA during the early days of the space program in the U.S. to be potential astronauts. With this launch, Funk is set to be the oldest person to ever fly to space, overtaking John Glenn who flew on his second mission in 1998 aboard NASA's Discovery at age 77.
Oliver Daemon, 18 years old and is set to become the youngest person to fly to space. Daemon is a Physics student who aims to study at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Before Daemon, the youngest person to take a trip to space was Gherman Titov of Russia who was 25 when he went aboard the Soviet Union's Vostok 2 in 1962.
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Written by: Jess Smith
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