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.īranson’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. 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.Ĭoasting 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. 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. EDT.Ĭlimbing 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.īlue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft blasts off on Jfor its first passenger flight, with owner Jeff Bezos onboard. ![]() The crew lifted off from the company’s West Texas launch site at 9:12 a.m. They look at it and they’re kind of amazed and awestruck by the Earth and its beauty, but also by its fragility, and I can vouch for that.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.Ĭompeting 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.įunk, 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. “Every astronaut, everybody who’s been up in space, they say this, that it changes them. ![]() “The most profound piece of it for me was looking out at the Earth, and looking at the Earth’s atmosphere,” Bezos said after he touched down. Wednesday’s flight is the next step for mankind - and for Bezos, who is aiming to compete with Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic in space tourism.īlue Origin conducted more than a dozen unmanned test flights of New Shepard before letting people, including Bezos and his brother Mark, on board for its first passenger-packed flight in July. The rocket, named after Alan Shepard, didn’t actually enter the orbit around Earth, but instead flew to the edge of space, known as the Kármán Line, a distinction that has caused questions about whether it counts as space travel. ![]() The four passengers experienced about four minutes of weightlessness. The entire journey lasted only about 10 minutes, traveling about 62 miles above sea level at three times the speed of sound, or 2,300 miles per hour. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos was on hand at the launch pad Wednesday as the crew prepared for takeoff.
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