Successfully lands after taking six on a 10-minute suborbital voyage Blue Origin, the space tourism venture launched by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, completed its fourth flight with a crew on Thursday, landing successfully in rural west Texas after taking a half dozen passengers for a 10-minute suborbital joyride. The New Shepard spacecraft blasted off at 8:59 a.m. CDT (1359 GMT), and the crew capsule separated from the six-story-tall rocket a short time later as it soared to an altitude of 66 miles (106 km). University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen shows a flag with "194" written on it, symbolizing his visits to 193 countries on Earth and his trip to sub-orbital space, as he emerges from the capsule of Blue Origin's rocket New Shepard after landing near Van Horn, Texas, U....
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Blue Origin’s 4th astro-tourism flight set to launch without big names
Delayed for two days because of poor weather conditions The fourth commercial flight of Jeff Bezos’ space tourism venture Blue Origin, offering short suborbital joyrides to well-heeled thrill-seekers and celebrity guests, has been delayed by two days because of poor weather conditions, the company said. Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft was scheduled for liftoff on Tuesday from the company’s launch site in rural west Texas at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 GMT) with six would-be citizen astronauts strapped into the crew cabin atop the fully autonomous launch vehicle, standing nearly six stories tall. FILE PHOTO - A helicopter flies over a building featuring Blue Origin's logo as rocket New Shepard is prepared for the NS-18 suborbital flight mission carrying Star Trek actor William Shatne...
Read MoreJeff Bezos' Blue Origin space tourism service has postponed until March 29 a flight initially set for next week, while "Saturday Night Live" comic Pete Davidson will not be a passenger on the launch, the company has said. The company, in a brief notice first posted on Twitter, gave no immediate explanation for the change or Davidson's withdrawal from the manifest of Blue Origin's fourth commercial flight since last summer. Davidson, 28, the boyfriend of reality TV star and socialite Kim Kardashian, had just been officially named on Monday as Blue Origin's "honorary guest" to join five paying customers on the flight initially set for March 23. With "Davidson no longer able to join" the new flight, Blue Origin said it would announce the sixth crew member "in the coming days." ...
Read More"Saturday Night Live" comic Pete Davidson has been confirmed as the next celebrity in line for a ride to the edge of space courtesy of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin astro-tourism company, with his suborbital flight set for next week. The 28-year-old comedian and boyfriend of socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian was announced by Blue Origin on Monday as an "honorary guest" joining five paying customers for the company's fourth commercial flight since last summer. FILE PHOTO: An interior view of the Blue Origin Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing Davidson, who had no immediate comment on his selection, was reported to have been in discussions with Blue Origin earlier this month. H...
Read MoreSpaceX gets ready to launch first all-civilian crew to orbit from Cape Canaveral Yet another billionaire entrepreneur is set to ride into space this week, strapped inside the capsule of a SpaceX rocketship, as part of an astro-tourist team poised to make history as the first all-civilian crew launched into Earth orbit. Jared Isaacman, the American founder and chief executive of e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments, will lead three fellow spaceflight novices on a trip expected to last three days from blastoff at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to splashdown in the Atlantic. FILE PHOTO: With a view of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at left, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward from Launch Complex 39A carrying the company’s Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule and four Crew-2 astronauts towards...
Read MoreOn the open expanses of Chile’s high-altitude Atacama desert, bright stars pierce an ink-black firmament, a lure for stargazers looking for wonder and astronomers seeking signs of life on distant planets. Chile’s arid northern deserts have attracted massive investment in telescopes in recent years and the country is home to nearly half the world’s astronomical observatories. Parabolic antennas of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimeter Array) project are seen at the El Llano de Chajnantor in the Atacama desert, Antofagasta, Chile in a File Photo. ESO/Babak Tafreshi (twanight.org)/Handout via REUTERS Now, under threat from light pollution coming from urban sprawl and development, Chile’s environmental defenders are starting a fight to keep the skies dark, with legal muscl...
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