Blue Origin has announced it will be launching its eighth human space flight on 29 August. Jeff Bezos’ reusable New Shepard rocket-capsule will take six crew members into space and the whole process will be available to watch for anyone from the comfort of their own home.
The NS-26 space mission will represent the New Shepard spacecraft’s 26th launch into space and its 8th manned flight. According to Blue Origin, approximately 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including its capsule, booster and engine.
The entire voyage will take 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to the parachute-aided touchdown. During that time, passengers travel at three times the speed of sound. After having crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, travellers are unbuckled and can observe Earth weightlessly from the windows that comprise one-third of the capsule’s surface area.
The NS-26 is set to launch from Blue Origin’s West Texas site at 9:00 am EDT (2:00 pm Brussels time and 8:00 am local Texas time) on Thursday. A live stream documenting the launch will be available 40 minutes prior to takeoff through Blue Origin’s website.
Just like during New Shepard’s prior missions, the crew is made up of a mix of people, including experienced astronauts as well as space newbies. The six crew members of NS-26 are Nicolina Elrick, Rob Ferl, Eugene Grin, Dr. Eiman Jahangir, Karsen Kitchen and Ephraim Rabin. Two of them in particular stand out from the rest: Rob Ferl, as he will be the first NASA-funded researcher to conduct an experiment as part of a commercial suborbital space crew, and Karsen Kitchen, a senior university student who will make history as the youngest woman to cross the Kármán line.
Blue Origin, a company founded by Jeff Bezos, wants to make space accessible for millions of people in the future, both to live and work in. Even though the price for a seat aboard the New Shepard hasn’t been made public, booking it can be done through enquiry. A two-day on-site astronaut training program teaches participants “everything they need to know for a safe spaceflight”.
