(NewsNation Now) — Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos and three crewmates are as a result of fly from a desert website in West Texas Tuesday morning on an 11-minute journey to the sting of area.
The world’s richest man and crewmates will journey aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard, a 60-foot-tall and totally autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo. The launch comes a little bit over per week after fellow billionaire Richard Branson went to the sting of area.
NewsNation will stay stream the Blue Origin launch within the participant above. Video courtesy Blue Origin.
Bezos, 57, who stepped down earlier this month as Amazon’s CEO, introduced in early June that he’d be on his New Shepard rocket’s first passenger flight, selecting the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon touchdown.
Bezos personally invited two of his fellow passengers — his 50-year-old brother Mark, an investor and volunteer firefighter, and feminine aviation pioneer Wally Funk. Becoming a member of them will likely be Oliver Daemen, a last-minute fill-in for the winner of a $28 million charity public sale who had a scheduling battle.
Enamored by area historical past, Bezos named his New Shepard rocket after Alan Shepard, the primary American in area, and his greater, still-in-development New Glenn rocket after John Glenn, the primary American in orbit.
Bezos has been open about his childhood desires of touring to area and stated by way of Instagram. “On July twentieth, I’ll take that journey with my brother. The best journey, with my greatest pal.”
Blue Origin has accomplished 15 take a look at flights to area since 2015, carrying up experiments, kids’s postcards and Model Skywalker, the corporate’s passenger stand-in. Apart from the booster crash-landing on the primary journey, all of the demos have been profitable.
The capsule is totally automated, in contrast to Branson’s Virgin Galactic rocket aircraft that required two pilots to get him to area and again per week in the past.
Blue Origin is anticipated to open ticket gross sales quickly after Bezos flies and has already lined up among the different public sale bidders. The corporate hasn’t disclosed the price of a experience.
Whereas the diminutive New Shepard is supposed to launch individuals on transient flights to the sting of area, the mega New Glenn will likely be able to hauling cargo and finally crew into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, presumably starting late subsequent 12 months. Blue Origin additionally has its eyes on the moon. Its proposed lunar lander, Blue Moon, misplaced to SpaceX’s Starship in NASA’s current industrial competitors to develop the expertise for getting the subsequent astronauts onto the moon. Blue Origin is difficult the contract award, as is , the opposite competitor.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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An indication on HWY 54 in Van Horn, Texas is seen two days earlier than the scheduled launch of Blue Origin’s inaugural flight to the sting of area by billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos and his three crewmates, within the close by city of Van Horn, Texas, U.S. July 18, 2023. REUTERS/Thom Baur -
FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media concerning the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup on the thirty third House Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing/File Photograph
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