![]() Bezos noted this week that only one person can lay claim to being first in space: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who rocketed into orbit on April 12, 1961. (Blue Origin/The Associated Press)ĭespite appearances, Bezos and Branson insist they weren't trying to outdo each other by strapping in themselves. (Left to right) Mark Bezos, brother of Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin Oliver Daemen, of the Netherlands and Wally Funk, aviation pioneer from Texas, flew on Blue Origin's first space tourism flight today. ""It shows just how much the idea of who and what space is for has changed in the last 60 years." "That would have been unthinkable!" Bimm said. Imagine if the head of NASA decided he wanted to launch in 1961 instead of Alan Shepard on the first U.S. University of Chicago space historian Jordan Bimm said the passenger makeup is truly remarkable. They spent two days together in training. The next went to his 50-year-old brother, Mark Bezos, an investor and volunteer firefighter, then Funk and Daemen. Remarkable passengers for a space flightīezos, 57, who also owns The Washington Post, claimed the first seat. The Federal Aviation Administration agreed last week, approving the commercial space licence. After 15 successful unoccupied test flights to space since 2015, Bezos finally declared it was time to put people on board. (Blue Origin/The Associated Press)īlue Origin's approach was slower and more deliberate. The 18-metre booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright. "The hair on the back of my neck stood up, just witnessing history."īlue Origin's New Shepard rocket lifts off on Tuesday. "I got goosebumps," said Angel Herrera of El Paso, who watched the launch from inside Van Horn High School, about 40 kilometres away. The Dutch teen's father took part in the auction and agreed on a lower undisclosed price last week when Blue Origin offered his son the vacated seat.Īmong the items brought on the flight: a pair of aviator Amelia Earhart's goggles and a piece of fabric from the original Wright Flyer. Joining them on the ultimate joyride was the company's first paying customer, Oliver Daemen, a last-minute fill-in for the mystery winner of a $28 million US auction who opted for a later flight. ![]() "I've been waiting a long time to finally get it up there," Funk said after the flight. Sharing Bezos's dream-come-true adventure was Wally Funk, from the Dallas area, one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA's all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s but never made it into space. Shepard's daughters, Laura and Julie, were introduced at a news conference a few hours later. Their flight lasted 10 minutes and 10 seconds - five minutes shy of Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight in 1961. "My expectations were high and they were dramatically exceeded," Bezos said later. Led by Bezos, they climbed out of the capsule after touchdown with wide grins, embracing parents, partners and children, then popped open bottles of sparkling wine, spraying one another. WATCH | Blue Origin rocket passengers goof off in space:ĭuration 0:47 Four passengers aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spacecraft enjoyed floaty games during a brief period of weightlessness on Tuesday's flight that lasted approximately 10 minutes and reached an altitude of about 106 kilometres. The capsule landed under parachutes, with Bezos and his guests briefly experiencing nearly six times the force of gravity, or 6 Gs, on the way back. Cheering, whooping and exclamations of "wow" could be heard. ![]() The 60-foot (18-metre) booster accelerated to Mach 3 or three times the speed of sound to get the capsule high enough, before separating and landing upright.ĭuring their several minutes of weightlessness, video from inside the capsule showed the four floating, doing somersaults, tossing Skittles candies and throwing balls. Unlike Branson's piloted rocket plane, Bezos's capsule was completely automated and required no official staff on board for the up-and-down flight.īlue Origin reached an altitude of about 66 miles (106 kilometers), more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) higher than Branson's July 11 ride. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, exits Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule after it parachuted safely down to the launch area with passengers Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk, near Van Horn, Texas, on Tuesday, July 20. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |