Jeff Bezos And Blue Origin Crew Complete Successful Space Flight

Jeff Bezos, the richest human in the world, went to space on
Tuesday. It was a brief jaunt — rising 60-some miles into the sky
above West Texas — in a spacecraft that was built by Mr. Bezos’
rocket company, Blue Origin.

Riding his own rocket, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos
streaked into space Tuesday on a thrilling 10-minute up-and-down
flight, a high-tech joyride that sets the stage for the start of
commercial passenger service later this year.

Competing head to head with fellow billionaire Richard Branson,
who flew into space aboard his Virgin Galactic rocketplane July 11,
Bezos blasted off with his brother Mark and two history-making
passengers: 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, the oldest
person to fly in space, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old Dutch
student who is the youngest ever to fly in space.

Funk, who was barred from NASA’s initially all-male astronaut
corps in the 1960s, finally got her chance to prove the naysayers
wrong, realizing a lifelong dream.

The crew lifted off from the company’s West Texas launch site at
9:12 a.m. EDT.

Climbing straight up atop 110,000 pounds of push, the rocket
rapidly accelerated as it consumed its load of supercold liquid
oxygen and hydrogen propellants, pushing the passengers back in
their recliner-style seats with about three times the normal force
of gravity.

In a little more than two minutes, the spacecraft was shooting
skyward at three times the speed of sound, dwindling to a blur more
than 30 miles up. A few seconds later, at an altitude of about 45
miles, the booster’s company-designed BE-3 main engine shut down
and the crew capsule was released to fly on its own.

Coasting upward along an unpowered ballistic trajectory, Bezos
and his crewmates enjoyed about three minutes of weightlessness,
free to unstrap and float about the cabin as it reached a high
point of just above 62 miles.

That’s the internationally recognized “boundary” between the
aerodynamically discernible atmosphere and space, a distinction
recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a
Switzerland-based organization that sanctions aerospace
records.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceplane flies slightly lower but
well above the 50-mile altitude recognized as the boundary of space
by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

In any case, Bezos and his crewmates would have time to turn
somersaults and briefly cavort in weightlessness while marveling at
spectacular views of Earth’s curved horizon and the blackness of
space through the capsule’s six windows, the largest ever built
into a spacecraft.

“There’s actually a light that the astronauts see on their
panels,” said capsule designer Gary Lai. “And one second after we
separate (from the booster), that fasten seatbelt light basically
goes off and they’re free to move about the cabin.”

The reusable New Shepard booster, meanwhile, headed back to
Earth on its own, plunging tail first toward a landing pad two
miles from the launch site. The rocket relied on deployable air
brakes and steering fins to maintain its orientation before
re-igniting its BE-3 engine, unfolding four hinged legs and
settling to a picture-perfect landing.

Meanwhile, aboard the crew capsule, Bezos and company strapped
back in while weightlessness gave way to atmospheric braking that
pressed the crew back into their seats with about four times the
normal force of gravity.

Lai said the transition from weightlessness to re-entry
deceleration was not a sudden change and that the crew had have
plenty of time to get back in their seats.

“It’s about three minutes before the astronauts get a warning to
get back into their seats,” he explained in an interview prior to
launch. “And at that point, they have about 30 seconds.”

He described it as a “very leisurely process.” “All they have to
do is be sitting in the seat and then as the G forces come on it
will naturally push them back in the seat so there is plenty of
time to buckle back in,” he said.

All of that apparently went well and the capsule soon was
falling freely back towards Earth. At a predicted altitude of about
3,000 feet, three large parachutes unfurled and inflated, slowing
the New Shepard’s descent to about 16 mph.

Then, just six feet or so off the ground, nitrogen powered
thrusters fired, slowing the capsule to just 1 mph and kicking up a
roiling cloud of dust as the spacecraft gently touched down at 9:22
a.m. EDT.

Blue Origin recovery crews converged on the capsule within
minutes of touchdown to open the hatch and help the returning
astronauts exit. All four emerged in obvious high spirits, smiling
and hugging support personnel before heading back to prepare for a
news conference and interviews.

It was the 16th successful test flight of a New Shepard
spacecraft, the third for this booster and capsule, and Blue
Origin’s first with passengers on board. And it all appeared to go
off without a hitch.

“Safety is definitely priority one,” Lai said. “We set out to
create the safest human spaceflight vehicle ever designed or built
or operated, and we think we have succeeded.”

Blue Origin plans to launch two more passenger flights before
the end of the year, but ticket prices have not been revealed. The
cost of a flight aboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane is believed to
be around $250,000 but both companies hope the market will support
economies of scale and lower prices down the road.

Blue Origin has two New Shepard rockets and capsules available
for flights, one dedicated to passenger service and the other to
scientific research payloads.

“We’re not done once we fly this vehicle, it’s really just the
beginning,” Lai said. “We are going to ramp up operations. We’re
going to have dozens and eventually hundreds and thousands of
astronauts we hope fly on New Shepard. So it is just the beginning.
But it is a monumental moment nevertheless.”

Jeff Bezos, the richest human in the world, went to space on
Tuesday. It was a brief jaunt — rising 60-some miles into the sky
above West Texas — in a spacecraft that was built by Mr. Bezos’
rocket company, Blue Origin.

Riding his own rocket, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos
streaked into space Tuesday on a thrilling 10-minute up-and-down
flight, a high-tech joyride that sets the stage for the start of
commercial passenger service later this year.

Competing head to head with fellow billionaire Richard Branson,
who flew into space aboard his Virgin Galactic rocketplane July 11,
Bezos blasted off with his brother Mark and two history-making
passengers: 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, the oldest
person to fly in space, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old Dutch
student who is the youngest ever to fly in space.

Funk, who was barred from NASA’s initially all-male astronaut
corps in the 1960s, finally got her chance to prove the naysayers
wrong, realizing a lifelong dream.

The crew lifted off from the company’s West Texas launch site at
9:12 a.m. EDT.

Climbing straight up atop 110,000 pounds of push, the rocket
rapidly accelerated as it consumed its load of supercold liquid
oxygen and hydrogen propellants, pushing the passengers back in
their recliner-style seats with about three times the normal force
of gravity.

In a little more than two minutes, the spacecraft was shooting
skyward at three times the speed of sound, dwindling to a blur more
than 30 miles up. A few seconds later, at an altitude of about 45
miles, the booster’s company-designed BE-3 main engine shut down
and the crew capsule was released to fly on its own.

Coasting upward along an unpowered ballistic trajectory, Bezos
and his crewmates enjoyed about three minutes of weightlessness,
free to unstrap and float about the cabin as it reached a high
point of just above 62 miles.

That’s the internationally recognized “boundary” between the
aerodynamically discernible atmosphere and space, a distinction
recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a
Switzerland-based organization that sanctions aerospace
records.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceplane flies slightly lower but
well above the 50-mile altitude recognized as the boundary of space
by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

In any case, Bezos and his crewmates would have time to turn
somersaults and briefly cavort in weightlessness while marveling at
spectacular views of Earth’s curved horizon and the blackness of
space through the capsule’s six windows, the largest ever built
into a spacecraft.

“There’s actually a light that the astronauts see on their
panels,” said capsule designer Gary Lai. “And one second after we
separate (from the booster), that fasten seatbelt light basically
goes off and they’re free to move about the cabin.”

The reusable New Shepard booster, meanwhile, headed back to
Earth on its own, plunging tail first toward a landing pad two
miles from the launch site. The rocket relied on deployable air
brakes and steering fins to maintain its orientation before
re-igniting its BE-3 engine, unfolding four hinged legs and
settling to a picture-perfect landing.

Meanwhile, aboard the crew capsule, Bezos and company strapped
back in while weightlessness gave way to atmospheric braking that
pressed the crew back into their seats with about four times the
normal force of gravity.

Lai said the transition from weightlessness to re-entry
deceleration was not a sudden change and that the crew had have
plenty of time to get back in their seats.

“It’s about three minutes before the astronauts get a warning to
get back into their seats,” he explained in an interview prior to
launch. “And at that point, they have about 30 seconds.”

He described it as a “very leisurely process.” “All they have to
do is be sitting in the seat and then as the G forces come on it
will naturally push them back in the seat so there is plenty of
time to buckle back in,” he said.

All of that apparently went well and the capsule soon was
falling freely back towards Earth. At a predicted altitude of about
3,000 feet, three large parachutes unfurled and inflated, slowing
the New Shepard’s descent to about 16 mph.

Then, just six feet or so off the ground, nitrogen powered
thrusters fired, slowing the capsule to just 1 mph and kicking up a
roiling cloud of dust as the spacecraft gently touched down at 9:22
a.m. EDT.

Blue Origin recovery crews converged on the capsule within
minutes of touchdown to open the hatch and help the returning
astronauts exit. All four emerged in obvious high spirits, smiling
and hugging support personnel before heading back to prepare for a
news conference and interviews.

It was the 16th successful test flight of a New Shepard
spacecraft, the third for this booster and capsule, and Blue
Origin’s first with passengers on board. And it all appeared to go
off without a hitch.

“Safety is definitely priority one,” Lai said. “We set out to
create the safest human spaceflight vehicle ever designed or built
or operated, and we think we have succeeded.”

Blue Origin plans to launch two more passenger flights before
the end of the year, but ticket prices have not been revealed. The
cost of a flight aboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane is believed to
be around $250,000 but both companies hope the market will support
economies of scale and lower prices down the road.

Blue Origin has two New Shepard rockets and capsules available
for flights, one dedicated to passenger service and the other to
scientific research payloads.

“We’re not done once we fly this vehicle, it’s really just the
beginning,” Lai said. “We are going to ramp up operations. We’re
going to have dozens and eventually hundreds and thousands of
astronauts we hope fly on New Shepard. So it is just the beginning.
But it is a monumental moment nevertheless.”