Just over a week after Richard Branson flew to the edge of space, fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos is set for a similarly high-stakes trip aboard his own rocket.Bezos will attempt to fly to space on Tuesday, July 20, launching aboard a rocket and capsule developed by Blue Origin, the Amazon founder’s private space company. It will be the first launch for Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, and if successful, Bezos will make history for taking part in the first unpiloted suborbital flight with a civilian crew.
Several other milestones may be set on the trip. Joining Bezos will be one passenger who stands to become the oldest person to reach space and another who would be the youngest.
Wally Funk, 82, is a former test pilot who was one of the Mercury 13 women who underwent training in the 1960s to demonstrate that women could meet NASA’s standards for its astronaut corps. At 18, the Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen could become the youngest astronaut. Rounding out the four-person crew is Bezos’ brother, Mark.
The New Shepard rocket launches from a site in the West Texas desert, southeast of El Paso. Since it’s a suborbital flight, the capsule will not enter into orbit around Earth, but will instead reach the edge of space, at an altitude of around 65 miles, where passengers will experience several minutes of weightlessness.
The capsule will then descend under parachutes and land again in the Texas desert. The entire journey is expected to last roughly 10 minutes.
The launch is an important step for Blue Origin, which is banking on a future market for high-priced joyrides to space. Blue Origin is hoping to begin operational flights with paying passengers in the near future, and while the company has not announced the price of individual tickets, they are expected to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Bezos’ attempt to reach space comes after Branson took part in a risky test flight on July 11 aboard a rocket-powered vehicle developed by his private space company, Virgin Galactic. But unlike Virgin Galactic’s Unity space plane, the New Shepard rocket and capsule fly autonomously, without pilots onboard.
Blue Origin’s capsule is also designed to reach a higher altitude than Virgin Galactic’s vehicle. The edge of space is often defined by the so-called Kármán line, at an altitude of 62 miles. While the New Shepard capsule flies above the Kármán line, Virgin Galactic’s craft reached an altitude of around 53 miles during Branson’s flight.
In other news – Photos: Miss SA graduates from Wits University
Miss SA 2020 Shudufhadzo Musiḓa celebrates graduating from the University of Wits today. Taking to social media, the beauty queen who clocked 25-year-old this week shared her graduation video.
She also flaunted her glamorous look, as she’s seen in a video walking with her crown on the head to get her certificate. Learn more
Source: nbcnews
