Your dream of traveling to space is closer to becoming a reality, as Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company has just released fresh images of the interior of their New Shepard capsule which will be used to transport travelers to outer space.
According to Blue Origin, this flight program is expected to materialize as soon as 2018, which involves the New Shepard taking the “commoners” up to the Kármán line, which is considered to be the border between the Earth and the Space. There the tourists will enjoy zero gravity for a few minutes before coming back to Earth.
Blue Origin put particular emphasis on enhancing the trip’s experience unlike anything before, for which they have installed the largest windows in the New Shepard in the history of spaceflight. This might seem like no big deal, but changing window dimensions even on an airplane requires extensive planning, which can be multiplied by several folds in complexity for a space shuttle.
In an email, Bezos said,
“Every seat’s a window seat, the largest windows ever in space.”
The photos also revealed reclining black seats bearing the Blue Origin feather logo, six of them revealing the capacity of the New Shepard as well.
When compared with the interior of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, the Shepered looks a lot more luxurious and impressive. But that is because SpaceX’s only focus is on safely transporting astronauts to the International Space Station, while Blue Origin is looking to tap into the newly found space tourism industry, which is apparently the next big thing with Elon Musk’s claim of sending two private citizens around the moon in a Crew Dragon by 2018 and Richard Branson promising Stephen Hawking to send him to space very soon.
This rocket has already been used five times, all successful launches and landings but this one will be the first manned launch. After the initial thrust, New Shepard’s booster and capsule separate, with the capsule falling under gravity for a few minutes before deploying parachutes to soften the fall. The booster is then returned to Earth thanks to autonomously controlled rocket-powered landing, and both of them are then reused for the next flight.
The New Shepard capsule mockup will be revealed at the 33rd Space Symposium from April 3 to 6 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, so we expect to get more pictures and information very soon!
