Blue Origin launched six passengers, including a NASA-sponsored researcher and the youngest woman to fly in space, on a sub-orbital trip out of the lower atmosphere Thursday aboard the company’s eighth manned spacecraft.
University of Florida researcher Rob Ferl, philanthropist Nicolina Elrick, adventurer Eugene Grin, Vanderbilt University cardiologist Elman Jahangir, American-Israeli businessman Ephraim Rabin and University of North Carolina senior Karsen Kitchen blasted off from Jeff Bezos’ west Texas launch site at 9:07 a.m. EDT.
Origin Blue
Powered by a hydrogen-fueled single-stage rocket, the New Shepard crew capsule is propelled straight up and past the cloud deck, disappearing from view as it is boosted to a maximum speed of 2,238 mph before the launcher’s BE-3 engine dies. down.
At that moment, the crew began to feel the weight for about three minutes, along with a spectacular view of the earth below, as the capsule climbed to an altitude of about 345,000 feet, or 65 miles, and then arched to begin its long fall. to Earth.
NASA and the US Air Force consider 50 miles to be a rather arbitrary space “limit”, the point above which the aircraft’s wings, rudder and other aerosurfaces are no longer effective. The internationally recognized limit is 12 miles higher.
According to one yardstick, the New Shepard capsule easily passed to the bottom of space as it arced through the high point of its trajectory.
Origin Blue
After sending the crew capsule on its way, the reusable booster returned to the Texas launch site, touching down safely on the concrete pad.
The New Shepard capsule took a little longer to descend, being lowered to the surface under three large parachutes for a relatively gentle touchdown at 9:17 a.m. From launch to landing: 10 minutes and eight seconds.
Crew members were overjoyed as they left the spacecraft a few minutes later, hugging family members and friends with smiles and cheers.
Ferl is a professor at the University of Florida who conducted NASA-funded research during New Shepard’s flight to learn more about how genes react during the transition to and from weight.
“The ride was incredibly smooth; I was very impressed with the ride up,” said Ferl after landing. “But it’s there, the darkness of space, there’s no way to talk about it. There’s no way to talk about the amazing place and the Earth below. The science is going well, everything is working as it should be … it can’t be a better experience.”
Origin Blue
Kitchen, at 21 years old, the youngest woman to fly in space, was also very happy, repeatedly hugging her father Jim, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a veteran of the Blue Origin flight in 2022.
“When he was little, he told me he was going to be an astronaut,” the elder kitchen said before the launch. “It’s emotional. It’s emotional to see people who want to go to space and it’s actually a dream come true. To be able to have a dream and have it come true is amazing.”
Blue Origin builds and markets the New Shepard rocket and spacecraft for space tourism, human research and unmanned experiments. The company is also building a large orbit-class rocket, called New Glenn, which will compete with SpaceX’s Falcon booster family, which is designed to send satellites and other payloads into orbit.
The first New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station from October 13 to boost NASA’s two ESCAPADE probes to Mars to learn more about how the solar wind interacts with the red planet’s atmosphere.
