Crew members include former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, the first US Black astronaut candidate Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin will resume flights to space on Sunday, ending a near two-year pause of crewed operations following a 2022 mission failure. The NS-25 mission will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with the launch window for the flight starting at 0830 CT (1330 GMT), the company said on Tuesday. The New Shepard rocket, which flies cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space, has been grounded since a September 2022 uncrewed mission failed roughly a minute after liftoff from Texas, forcing the rocket's capsule full of NASA experiments to safely eject mid-flight. FILE PHOTO: A helicopter flies over a building featuring Blue Origin's logo as rocket New ...
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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 MoreDaughter of pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard soars to space aboard Blue Origin rocket
The eldest daughter of pioneering U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard took a joyride to the edge of space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocketship on Saturday, 60 years after her late father’s famed suborbital NASA flight at the dawn of the Space Age. Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, who was a schoolgirl when her father first streaked into space, was one of six passengers buckled into the cabin of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft as it lifted off from a launch site outside the west Texas town of Van Horn. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc, sits with the crew of a scheduled flight before they board Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket near Van Horn, Texas, U.S. December 11, 2021. Blue Origin/Handout via REUTERS. The crew capsule was carried aloft atop the fu...
Read MoreAnother milestone in billionaire’s race to open up space tourism Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, and three crewmates soared high above the Texas desert aboard his space venture Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps to inaugurate a new era of private commercial space tourism. The spacecraft ignited its BE-3 engines for a lift-off from Blue Origin's Launch Site One facility about 20 miles (32 km) outside the rural town of Van Horn. There were generally clear skies with a few patchy clouds on a cool morning for the launch. New Shepard rocket and Blue Origin capsule taking off from Texas desert. Image captured from Live webcast/Awara Musafir The 57-year-old American billionaire flew on a voyage lasti...
Read MoreWinner of $28 million bid for seat drops out, Blue Origin to make history with unpiloted civilian space flight An 18-year-old physics student whose father heads an investment management firm is set to take the place of a person who put up $28 million in an auction to take part in the inaugural space tourism flight for billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company. Blue Origin said on Thursday Oliver Daemen will join the four-member all-civilian crew for Tuesday’s scheduled 11-minute ride to the edge of space after the auction winner, whose name had not been made public, dropped out due to unspecified “scheduling conflicts.” Daemen becomes the company’s first paying customer. His addition means that the flight is set to include the oldest person ever to go to space - 82-year-old...
Read MoreThree billionaire entrepreneurs - Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson - are each vying to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. Here is how their rival ventures compare in the race to open up space travel. TICKETS Bezos, Branson and Musk have been investing billions of dollars in their space startups, each promising to ferry paying customers on rides to space - and it will cost a pretty penny to be part of it. Branson's Virgin Galactic is reported to have more than 600 ticket reservations already, priced around $250,000. It expects to begin a full commercial service in 2022 and eventually hopes to slash the ticket price to around $40,000. FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster an...
Read MoreBillionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson will travel to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's test flight on July 11, Branson's space tourism firm said on Thursday, beating out fellow aspiring billionaire astronaut Jeff Bezos. A successful flight by Branson aboard Virgin's VSS Unity spaceplane would mark a key milestone in a race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel. It would also mean that Branson would travel beyond Earth's atmosphere ahead of Bezos, the founder of rival space tourism venture Blue Origin. Bezos, who founded retail giant Amazon.com Inc, is slated to fly to space on July 20 along with his brother, Mark, trailblazing female pilot Wally Funk and a so-far unidentified person who plunked down $28 million to join the suborbital jo...
Read MoreA seat on a spaceship ride with billionaire Jeff Bezos went for $28 million (almost 205 crore rupees) during a live auction on Saturday, concluding the month-long bidding process for the sightseeing trip on the Blue Origin’s maiden voyage next month. Within four minutes of the open of Saturday’s live phone auction, bids reached beyond $20 million. The bidding closed seven minutes after the auction began. The identity of the winner - presumably an ultra-wealthy space aficionado - was not immediately disclosed. FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing The July 20 launch of Blue...
Read MoreWant to bid for a seat on a spaceship ride with Jeff Bezos? You’ll need to be quick - and you’ll probably need more than $4 million. Blue Origin is planning a live auction on Saturday to conclude the month-long bidding process for a seat on the sightseeing trip to space next month with the company’s founder, billionaire Amazon.com Inc executive Bezos. The identity of the winner - presumably an ultra-wealthy space aficionado - will not be immediately disclosed. But the July 20 launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster from West Texas would be a landmark moment as U.S. firms strive toward a new era of private commercial space travel. FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33r...
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