Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched and returned 6 passengers into space on Sunday, May 19th. This marked the company’s first return to its core space tourism business since the suspension of its New Shepard suborbital rocket and spacecraft in 2022.
According to Reuters, on Sunday, Blue Origin launched the rocket carrying 6 passengers from its facility in western Texas to the edge of space. This made Ed Dwight the oldest person to reach space. The 90-year-old former astronaut candidate landed and expressed ecstatic joy, stating, “I am over the moon.”
Dwight and other passengers were seated in the space capsule atop the rocket, which ascended from Blue Origin’s facility near the desert town of Van Horn. After the space capsule separated from the rocket, it ascended to 65.7 miles (105.7 kilometers) beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, while the booster returned to land as planned.
The space capsule then descended back to Earth with the assistance of parachutes, concluding the approximately 10-minute flight mission. One of the three parachutes in the space capsule did not fully inflate, leading to a glitch that will be carefully reviewed before the rocket’s next flight.
Dwight was the first African-American astronaut candidate selected by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 for astronaut training but had never flown to space until this Sunday. Upon landing, Dwight exited the space capsule and celebrated by waving his fist in the air.
After landing, Dwight told interviewers from Blue Origin, “I really thought I didn’t need this in my life, but now I do.”
Blue Origin has provided flight services to 37 private astronauts, including William Shatner, who portrayed Captain James Kirk in the famous American sci-fi series “Star Trek”, at the age of 90 years and 6 months in 2021.
Among the passengers were a venture capitalist and a pilot. All these passengers are paying customers of Blue Origin’s space tourism business, except for Dwight whose seat was sponsored by a non-profit organization and a private foundation focusing on space. Blue Origin has not disclosed the amount charged to customers.
New Shepard is the only active rocket of Blue Origin, which was grounded after an unmanned research mission failure in September 2022. In December 2023, New Shepard returned to space to transport 33 scientific and research payloads to the edge of space in an unmanned mission.
Sunday’s launch of New Shepard marked Blue Origin’s seventh manned flight mission.