Photo: x/blueorigin
The American company Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has successfully completed the tenth tourist suborbital flight of the New Shepard spacecraft. The launch took place on 25 February from a spaceport in West Texas, although the launch was delayed by 19 minutes due to technical issues. This was reported by Space News.
The capsule with six passengers on board reached an altitude of 107 kilometres above sea level, which exceeds the conventional limit of space. After several minutes of weightlessness, the vehicle returned to Earth, and the total flight duration was 10 minutes and 8 seconds.
Before the launch, the company announced the names of five mission participants. They include investor Lane Bess, who has already flown on New Shepard in 2021, Spanish TV presenter Jesus Calleja, Chicago-based media company owner Elaine Chia Hyde, physician and CEO of a medical company Richard Scott, and hedge fund research manager Tushar Shah. The sixth participant wished to remain anonymous, but in the video footage, his overalls had a patch with the name “R. Wilson”.
This is the tenth tourist flight conducted by Blue Origin and the second New Shepard mission this year. The company continues to develop space tourism, making flights accessible to a wider range of people.
