The private space flight services company successfully gave six space tourists a quick journey to the edge of space and back.
Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos owned, Kent, Washington-based private aerospace firm successfully launched its sixth New Shepard passenger flight or NS-22 mission on Thursday. Six space tourists were taken on a supersonic journey into the skies and onto the edge of space and back to earth, with an out-of-this-world experience of weightlessness and breathtaking views of the Earth about 66 miles away.
CBS News reported that as the spacecraft reached the highest points of its trajectory, expressions of wonder and excitement were abound, with participants of the NS-22 mission unstrapping themselves to experience less gravity as they marveled at the sight of Earth from space. New Shepard's single-stage rocket took off from Blue Origin's facility in Van Horn, Texas at 9:57 a.m. EDT on Thursday, successfully launching the space tourist mission straight into a clear blue sky that day.
Blue Origin Takes Several Passengers to Space
Among those who made it to space on Blue Origin's NS-22 mission on Thursday was British-American mountain climber Vanessa O'Brien, an engineer expert in autonomous driving systems Clint Kelly III, and a former CEO of a large telecommunications company and now a restaurant developer Steve Young from Melbourne, Florida. Also on the space tourist mission was Portuguese investor Mario Ferreira, 29 year old Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer Sara Sabry, and Coby Cotton, who is one of the five founders of the widely followed YouTube channel called "Dude Perfect."
Blue Origin's NS-22 mission took a total of 10 minutes and 20 seconds from its launch to the landing. But for Sabry, the length of the mission was not as important as what it symbolized, saying that she was "honored to be representing Egypt in space for the first time." Her flight was sponsored by Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization founded in 2017 by former Colliers International president Dylan Taylor.
Blue Origin's NS-22 Space Tourist Mission Takes Steps in the Commercial Flight Industry
The NS-22 mission was powered by a rocket equipped with a hydrogen-burning BE-3 first-stage engine that boosted the New Shepard crew capsule to a velocity of up to 2,239 mph and an eventual altitude of 351,232 feet. This distance is well above the US and international standards for what is the real "boundary" between the Earth's atmosphere and space.
While Blue Origin does not disclose how much these trips cost per person, Quartz said that MoonDAO, a "decentralized autonomous organization" on the ethereum blockchain paid $2,575,000 for two seats on the space tourist mission, including Cotton's. The second seat has not yet been filled.
The NS-22 mission is the 12th piloted commercial, non-government sub-orbital spaceflight and Blue Origin's sixth. The space tourist mission held a deep meaning for each of the six passengers on the flight.
According to Space.com, O'Brien applauded Blue Origin for revolutionizing space flight for regular people who would otherwise need to enter the military or undergo training just to go to space. She also carried the United Nations' Women Flag(opens in new tab) with her into space as a move to advance gender equality worldwide.
Cotton, on the other hand, had many plans to film footage of his trip for his YouTube channel but ended up forgetting about it just from the sheer wonder of his experience in space. He remarked that it was truly an "unbelievable" experience that made him "feel so small in a really cool way."
