The flight was everything that Bezos had been hoping for. Image Credit: Blue Origin
The first ever manned launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft proved a major success.
Hot on the heels of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic flight to the edge of space last week, Jezz Bezos soared into the heavens aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard earlier today.
The flight, which in its entirety lasted just over ten minutes, saw Bezos - along with three others - spend a quick couple of minutes experiencing zero-gravity before parachuting back down to Earth.
Joining him was 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk (now the oldest person ever to fly in space), 18-year-old student Oliver Daemen from the Netherlands (now the youngest person ever to fly in space) and his own brother - Mark Bezos.
"It was the best day ever," the billionaire said as he emerged from the capsule.
Blue Origin will be offering flights to paying passengers in the not-too-distant future, however it is currently unclear exactly how much a seat aboard New Shepard will cost.
Last month, a seat aboard today's flight had sold at auction for $28 million, however the winner reportedly pulled out due to a 'scheduling conflict' and Daemen flew instead.
Now with both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic having successfully completed their inaugural flights, the space tourism sector is likely to get very busy over the coming years.
Musk doesn't need them. Blue Origin seems to have plateaued and Virgin Galactic is content to sell joyrides to tourists. On paper, yours is a good idea, but in practice in the private sector, competition is king.
Agreed. However, the Bezos deal had the rocket land in a designated place and performed as it should. It landed on the spot to be reused again. Not as impressive as landing a rocket on floating platform on the sea, and Spacex has created workable and practical space capsules that leave actual orbit, and make it to the space station. Spacesuits that work. Musk is miles ahead. But....if I had to put money on who is second for the space tourist industry, I have to go with Bezos. And the new boom to that little speck on the map in northwest Texas. Branson will not fly for another year, and Bezos w... [More]
Mine is on Boeing, whose fully developed launch system and spacecraft, Starliner, launches for it's second test flight at the end of the month. If all goes well, they'll launch a crewed capsule to the ISS before the end of the year. For some, reaching space is an arbitrary line in the sky. For someone like me, who grew up in the space-age, reaching space is reaching orbit.
So what? Alan Shepard did a sub-orbital flight in May of 1961. Sixty years later "Dr Evil" and the Virgin Galactic guy, Branson did it for their egos, publicity and the government contracts that will come their way. Bezo's company will use a computer algorithm to fire you if you don't make your delivery quotas on time. You won't even get a call from a human being. The computer will generate an email telling you to get lost. Branson asked for a 300 million dollar bailout from the UK government last year for Virgin Airlines. . Apparently Branson was demanding the government do somet... [More]
It'd be rather difficult NOT to see the resemblance. I have to say, though, I can understand why it might be created in that fashion. He was going for the largest view ports possible and that was probably the simplest design. Aesthetics be damned
I see some value in Branson VG, I mean right now its for joyrides training and some cheap low cost experiments. But on the long run i can see VG offering high speed suborbital VIP transport and later it could develop to suborbital passenger liner. Im talking in the long run. But Bezos, New Glenn, I dont, beside astronaut training, small experiment and a occasional joy ride. I dont see that thing evolving in anything. Maybe its just me.
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