In its first successful launch in 15 months, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launched an uncrewed tourist rocket from West Texas on Tuesday morning. The previous mission had failed, causing frustration for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Key Facts
The New Shepard rocket was launched at 10:43 a.m. Eastern Time and carried 33 scientific and research payloads, including data collection technology and experiments conducted in space, along with 38,000 postcards from the “Club for the Future.” New Shepard reached a maximum altitude of 351,247 feet about four minutes after launch before beginning its descent to Earth, landing seven minutes and 28 seconds after liftoff.
Successful Mission and Blue Origin’s Plan to Send Tourists to Space
This successful mission is a significant step forward in Blue Origin’s plan to send paying tourists to the edge of space, as over twenty people have already flown, including Bezos himself, “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan, and “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.
Launch Delay and Previous Failed Mission
New Shepard was originally scheduled to launch on Monday, but the launch was canceled hours before its planned time due to a “ground system issue,” according to Blue Origin. This is the first launch of New Shepard since a failed mission in September 2022, when a motor nozzle failure caused a massive fireball to erupt one minute after launch.
Basic Information about New Shepard Rocket
The New Shepard spacecraft has been developed for space tourism, designed to carry six people on an 11-minute journey to space, according to the Blue Origin website. The exact price of a ticket on New Shepard is not known, but the first ticket was sold at an online auction in 2021 for $28 million. A total of 31 people have successfully flown aboard New Shepard, but the malfunction that occurred last year “is why I am comfortable allowing anyone to go on New Shepard,” Bezos said in an interview with broadcaster Lex Fridman last week.
Important Quote
“The booster rocket is as safe and reliable as we can make it,” Bezos told Fridman on the podcast. “The energy density is so great that it’s impossible to be completely sure that nothing will go wrong. So, the only way to improve safety is to have an escape system… you can’t make it completely safe. That’s impossible.”
The Big Number
$3.4 billion. This is the value of the contract Blue Origin holds with NASA to provide spacecraft landing services on the Moon’s surface as part of the Artemis program, which will send more American astronauts to the Moon under this contract.
Forbes Assessment
As of Tuesday, Bezos is considered the third richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at around $176 billion. Blue Origin was founded in September 2000 and has since become a defense contractor and a leader in space technology alongside Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
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