However, Blue Origin made a slightly snarky tweet about where space actually begins and seemed to suggest that perhaps Branson hadn't reached "space" after all. The latter company took its billionaire founder to a height of 53 miles (86 kilometers), earning Branson his own pair of commercial astronaut wings. In the leadup to launch, there had been some frosty back and forth between Bezos' Blue Origin and Branson's Virgin Galactic. When the as-yet-unannounced winner of the auction pulled out due to "scheduling conflicts," Daemen got the callup. His father, owner of a Dutch private equity firm, placed a bid to nab a seat on New Shepard, but pulled out as the value crept up. Sitting next to her on the journey, but on the other side of the generational gap, was 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. She thanked Jeff Bezos, turning and kissing him on the cheek. "I loved it," Funk said at a post-flight conference. Today, she became the oldest person to visit space. The program was canned in 1962, and Funk's space dreams were put on hold. Funk volunteered to take part in the privately funded Women in Space Program in the 1960s, undergoing the same physiological assessments as America's first male astronauts. While much has been made of Bezos' journey - and, sure, he bankrolled the endeavor - but it was a truly momentous occasion for 82-year-old Mary "Wally" Funk, who had been dreaming of going to space for longer than Bezos has been alive. The historic feat came just 11 days after Richard Branson's flight on the Virgin Galactic spaceplane on July 9. "I am unbelievably good," Bezos said after touchdown, responding to a check by CapCom. Blue OriginĪt approximately eight minutes and 30 seconds after flight, the capsule's parachutes deployed and brought the capsule safely to land. (L-R) Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, Oliver Daemen, Wally Funk. The capsule has six seats and six windows, the biggest to fly in space.The crew of NS-16, the first crewed flight for Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Blue Origin said its staff is maintaining social distancing and taking other safety measures.īlue Origin said it needs a couple more flights before launching people - tourists, scientists and professional astronauts - on short hops. Tuesday’s launch was the first in nearly a year for Blue Origin: The pandemic stalled operations. The rocket is named for the first American in space, Alan Shepard. NASA chose three teams in this early phase of the Artemis moon-landing program to increase the chances of getting astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of 2024.ĭelayed three weeks by technical issues, this was the 13th New Shepard flight for Blue Origin. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also working on a lander, as is Alabama-based Dynetics. Led by Amazon founder Bezos, Washington state-based Blue Origin is leading a team of companies to develop a lunar lander for astronauts. Texas-based Southwest Research Institute had a magnetic asteroid-sampling experiment on board, as well as a mini rocket-fueling test. “Using New Shepard to simulate landing on the Moon is an exciting precursor to what the Artemis program will bring to America,” Blue Origin’s chief executive Bob Smith said in a statement. It’s all part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to put the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, a deadline imposed by the White House. The sensors and computer - tested during the booster’s descent and touchdown - will hitch another suborbital ride with Blue Origin. NASA’s navigation equipment for future moon landings was located on the booster. and Canada, and tens of thousands of children’s postcards with space-themed drawings that will be returned to the young senders. The capsule carried science experiments, including 1.2 million tomato seeds that will be distributed to schoolchildren around the U.S. The booster landed vertically back at the launch complex after liftoff, and the capsule followed, parachuting onto the desert floor. The entire flight - barely skimming space with a peak altitude of 66 miles (106 kilometers) - lasted just 10 minutes. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company launched a New Shepard rocket for a seventh time from a remote corner of Texas on Tuesday, testing new lunar-landing technology for NASA that could help put astronauts back on the moon. In this image from video made available by Blue Origin, the New Shepard rocket lifts off from its launchpad in Texas, to test new lunar-landing technology for NASA that could help put astronauts back on the moon by 2024.
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