Kent-based Blue Origin successfully completed its fifth human spaceflight and 21st flight for the New Shepard program.
The six-member crew took the approximately 10-minute flight on June 4 that goes up 62 miles and reaches speeds of about 2,230 mph from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas.
“It was an honor to fly this special crew of explorers and true pioneers today,” said Phil Joyce, New Shepard senior vice president in a Blue Origin email. “Thank you to the entire New Shepard team for your tireless work and dedication to this program.
“Each mission is an opportunity to provide another six people the life-changing experience of witnessing the beauty and fragility of our planet from space. It’s one step in realizing our vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.”
The crew included:
• Evan Dick, investor and NS-19 astronaut on Dec. 11, 2021
• Katya Echazarreta, business jet pilot
Her seat was sponsored by Space for Humanity, a nonprofit whose mission is to expand access to space for all of humanity.
• Hamish Harding, Action Aviation chairman
• Victor Correa Hespanha, civil production engineer from Brazil
His seat was sponsored by the Crypto Space Agency, whose mission is to combine the space industry’s technology with the innovation and financial power of the crypto markets to accelerate humankind’s off-world future.
• Jaison Robinson, adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder
• Victor Vescovo, co-founder of private equity investment firm Insight Equity
Blue Origin, started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2020 in Kent, offers paid seats on the flights. The company does not release how much people pay for the flights.
This flight was delayed from May 20 because during the final vehicle checkouts, staff observed one of New Shepard’s back-up systems was not meeting expectations for performance, according to a company spokesperson.
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