Blue Origin is making final preparations for the third manned launch of its New Shepard rocket.
The mission was originally scheduled for Thursday, December 9, but high winds at the West Texas launch site forced it on Saturday, December 11.
The 10-minute journey to the edge of space will carry six passengers, marking the first time for Blue Origin to fill a capsule to capacity.
The crew included invitees Laura Shepard Churchley, Alan Shepard’s eldest daughter, the first American in space, and the rocket named after Blue Origin. Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan will also be on board as a guest of Blue Origin.
Other seats are taken by paying passengers Dylan Taylor, aerospace executive and philanthropist; investor Evan Dick; And Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess and his son Cameron, with Lane and Cameron becoming the first parent-child couple to fly together in space.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will carry six crew members to the Carmen Line, a site about 100 kilometers above Earth widely regarded as the beginning of space. The crew will be able to see the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth, and at the highest point they can leave their seats to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. The capsule then returns to Earth in a parachute-assisted landing.
Suborbital space travel precedes the launch of Blue Origin’s commercial space tourism service, which could begin next year.
Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos himself was part of Blue Origin’s first manned flight in July.
In addition to the space tourism service, the company hopes to provide hardware that NASA can use on future missions.
how to see?
Blue Origin will launch a New Shepard rocket and its crew to the edge of space on Saturday, December 11, with weather permitting.
The flight will begin at Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:45 a.m. ET (6:45 a.m. PT), though the Blue Origin livestream will begin approximately 90 minutes earlier.
You can view coverage through the Blue Origin website. The company hasn’t posted its video player for the Mission yet, but if it does, we’ll embed it at the top of this page.
