First Manned Flight a Success for Blue Origin

Blue Origin had perfect conditions for its first manned flight Tuesday morning, as four passengers rocketed into space at 9:12 EST.

"You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know."

Jeff Bezos

The New Shepard booster pushed the crew to an altitude of 351,210 feet, or 66.5 miles above the Earth, where they spent about 3 minutes at zero G before returning to the ground under three parachutes. The booster landed safely on its landing pad as planned.

The crew on this first manned flight included Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old Dutch high school graduate who was gifted the seat by his father, and Wally Funk, an 82-year-old woman who had qualified for the astronaut training program in the 1960s, but never had the opportunity to fly into space.

Flying on New Shepard fulfilled a lifelong dream for Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the Moon, and rockets since he was four. Oliver graduated from high school in 2020 and took a gap year before continuing his studies to obtain his private pilot’s license. This September, Oliver will attend the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management.

The 11-minute flight was fully automated, with no pilot commanding the spacecraft. At one point during the flight, as the capsule descended towards Earth, Bezos told mission controllers "You have a very happy crew up here, I want you to know."

“(This is) the first time a privately funded spaceflight vehicle has launched private citizens to space from a private launch site and private range down here in Texas. It's also a giant first step towards our vision to have millions of people living and working in space," Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin's astronaut-sales director, said during the livestream of the flight.

Blue Origin's first manned flight came just nine days after Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson flew to space aboard VSS Unity, making July, 2021 arguably the dawn of the private commercial manned spaceflight industry. Branson and the Unity crew reached an altitude of 55 miles, which some say is not truly spaceflight, but is recognized by NASA and others as qualifying as traveling to space. Blue Origin went beyond the 62-mile (100 km) Kármán line during Tuesday's mission.

(Source: Blue Origin. Images and video provided)

https://youtu.be/tMHhXzpwupU