You all know about Blue Origins, right? The space company that was founded by Jeff Bezos? Yes, the same guy who owns Amazon. Blue Origins has just successfully executed a record-shattering launch of its New Shepard rocket on Thursday.
The mission was the first time that Blue Origins was able to launch and land one of its rockets for a total of five times. The New Shepard Rocket lifted off from Blue Origins’ facility located in West Texas. The New Shepard Rocket was also used for sending the company’s record 38 research and development experiments to the edge of space.
The New Shepard Rocket was able to send the Blue Origins’ capsule to an altitude of 346,406 feet. That is more than 100 kilometers up! Blue Origins, the company that was founded by Bezos about twenty years ago, has been developing the New Shepard Rocket for the space tourism business that the company wishes to undertake.
As per Blue Origins, a total of six passengers will be able to ride past space’s edge using the New Shepard Rocket where they will spend a total of almost ten minutes floating in zero gravity conditions before making their way back to Earth. The capsule has huge windows and offers expansive views of the Earth once it is in the space.
The New Shepard Rocket has been named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. The most important aspect of it is its capability of reuse. Reusability is the critical component of Blue Origins’ plans of transforming space tourism into a business. Similar to the SpaceX’s Falcon 9, the booster of the rocket launches and then returns straight down to land. The booster is the lowest and the biggest part of the rocket.
What do you think of space tourism and Blue Origins idea? Do let us know!