Blue Origin has taken its flight once more to space. This time, the passengers included the former NFL football player and Good Morning America host Michael Strahan alongside five other crewmates on the New Shepard rocket’s NS-19 mission. This makes it the third flight of the company to space.
The flight left the ground at 9:45 a.m. EST (1445 GMT) at launch Site One in West Texas. Besides the above-mentioned people, there was Laura Shepard Churchley, eldest daughter of the famed NASA astronaut Alan Shepard among the passengers too. In addition, the Managing Member of Dick Holdings Evan Dick, Voyager Space’s CEO Dylan Taylor, and the first parent-child duo: Lane Bess (a father) and Cameron Bess (the child) were present too.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will travel to the Kármán line. This is the point that is considered as the start of space. The passengers aboard the ship will then be able to see the blackness of space as well as the curvature of Earth.
They will also be able to get up from their seats and experience weightlessness on their own. After all that, the capsule will return to Earth landing with the help of a parachute.
This launch is the third one of Blue Origin this year. The previous two launches lifted four people each, the first of which included Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
The second one, in October 2021, saw “Star Trek” actor William Shatner, the Medidata Co-Founder Glen de Vries, DCVC Partner Chris Boshuizen, and Audrey Powers from Blue Origin reach space and come back safely as planned.
The company is gradually increasing the number of people in the flight to see how many it can take at one time in one flight. Launching six people per flight will probably vastly increase its profit margins, which could lead to more affordable seats on the space tourism system.
