Six More Humans Successfully Carried to the Edge of Space by Blue Origin (space.com)
- Reference: 0177895653
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/01/2234237/six-more-humans-successfully-carried-to-the-edge-of-space-by-blue-origin
- Source link: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/blue-origin-launches-1st-new-zealander-to-reach-space-5-others-on-latest-new-shepard-suborbital-flight
> Three world travelers, two Space Camp alums and an aerospace executive whose last name aptly matched their shared adventure traveled into space and back Saturday, becoming the latest six people to fly with Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
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> Mark Rocket joined Jaime Alemán, Jesse Williams, Paul Jeris, Gretchen Green and Amy Medina Jorge on board the RSS First Step — Blue Origin's first of two human-rated [2]New Shepard capsules — for a trip above the [3]Kármán Line , the 62-mile-high (100-kilometer) internationally recognized boundary between Earth and space...
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> Mark Rocket became the first New Zealander to reach space on the mission. His connection to aerospace goes beyond his apt name and today's flight; he's currently the CEO of Kea Aerospace and previously helped lead [4]Rocket Lab , a competing space launch company to Blue Origin that sends most of its rockets up from New Zealand. Alemán, Williams and Jeris each traveled the world extensively before briefly leaving the planet today. An attorney from Panama, Alemán is now the first person to have visited all 193 countries recognized by the United Nations, traveled to the North and South Poles, and now, have been into space. For Williams, an entrepreneur from Canada, Saturday's flight continued his record of achieving high altitudes; he has summitted Mt. Everest and five of the other six other highest mountains across the globe.
"For about three minutes, the six NS-32 crewmates experienced [5]weightlessness ," the article points out, "and had an astronaut's-eye view of the planet..."
[6]On social media Blue Origin notes it's their 12th human spaceflight, "and the 32nd flight of the New Shepard program."
[1] https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/blue-origin-launches-1st-new-zealander-to-reach-space-5-others-on-latest-new-shepard-suborbital-flight
[2] https://www.space.com/40372-new-shepard-rocket.html
[3] https://www.space.com/karman-line-where-does-space-begin
[4] https://www.space.com/rocket-lab.html
[5] https://www.space.com/23017-weightlessness.html
[6] https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1928823373636776248
Stop reporting on tourism (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously. Did we spend all this time putting the names of everyone who flew across an ocean in a jet in newspapers?
It's silly. They're reach people doing tourism. No one should care, no media outlets should be boosting them.
NASA is getting constant attacks and defunding, and we're reporting on this nonsense like it's space news . . .
NASA mandate (Re:Stop reporting on tourism) (Score:1)
If this is a funding issue for NASA then maybe they need to get into the space tourism business to supplement the funds they get from Congress. Alternatively, NASA could get out of the business of sending people to space and be a regulatory agency on who goes where with what like the FAA and DOT.
If there's private industry willing to spend money on developing rockets for what amounts to a carnival ride then that is still private industry developing rocket technology to the advantage of the government since
Re: (Score:2)
> If this is a funding issue for NASA then maybe they need to get into the space tourism business to supplement the funds they get from Congress. Alternatively, NASA could get out of the business of sending people to space and be a regulatory agency on who goes where with what like the FAA and DOT.
Why when that's already the FAA's job?
Re: (Score:2)
They did have a few firsts we probably should recognize.
First to label Katy Perry an “astronaut”.
First to turn spaceflight into a glorified carnival ride.
First to make a door hatch look like it came off a used Airstream.
Re: (Score:2)
First to bring "glam" to space.
Re: (Score:2)
> First to turn spaceflight into a glorified carnival ride.
Unless you do actual work in space as part of your actual job, that's really all it will ever be to you.
Re: (Score:2)
People here still try to get a "First Post" from time to time. If people will still attempt to achieve something so worthless as that, good luck convincing people to stop for something (barely) interesting enough to get featured as a story here.
Wow. (Score:5, Insightful)
Let the celebration begin! We have again sent six mega-rich people not-quite to space, so they can gawk at the Earth for a few minutes before coming back down, having accomplished nothing but causing additional air pollution and creating something for them to talk about on their social media feeds like they have had a religious experience, but will not influence their behavior or actions in ways that benefit people in all walks of life the way actual saints have.
Re: Wow. (Score:2)
BO employs advanced Engineers advancing outer space capabilities. The privileged passengers help enable. China space station also doing well. If only mankind could better cooperate but multiple approaches helps learn as well. BO a nice alternative or farm league for SpaceX .
Walked to the edge of my lawn today (Score:2)
Felt like a genuine accomplishment.
Didn't cost me a penny.
Batty, Roy. Probably their leader. (Score:2)
We prefer to call it retirement.
Change the definition! (Score:1)
Yeah yeah, they passed the Karman line. But I think to qualify someone as an "astronaut" they should at least have to orbit the Earth ONCE.
Re: (Score:3)
They should ask Musk. His company does it 4 times a week with a 99.1% success rate.
Re: (Score:2)
At that point you're arguing over semantics about where the atmosphere actually ends, which is neither constant nor is it necessarily the same shape as terrestrial earth, and your definition places the ISS within the atmosphere as well, as the international SPACE station is well within the thermosphere. Not to mention, while air is homogenous, the atmosphere is not, particularly in areas we often refer to as space.
That's why most just stick with the Karman line. Why? That's the point where aeronautics are m
Re: (Score:3)
You're asking the wrong question, you should be asking things more along the lines of:
"When is BO going to send humans to space for more than a few minutes?"
"When is blue origin going to send humans to orbit?"
"When is blue origin going to rendezvous and dock with a space station or other craft?"
For now, they've got an expensive carnival ride.
Re: "Edge of Space" (Score:2)
They just want people to be in the cockpit just long enough to experience BO.
Re: (Score:1)
If that's true, then the total number of people who ever did is exactly 24. Of those, only these guys are still among the living:
Fred Haise
Buzz Aldrin
David Scott
Charles Duke
Harrison Schmitt
Meaning, the only country to have ever sent anybody beyond Earth's atmosphere is and always has been the United States. So if you continue to take this stance, you're going to piss off:
Fluffernutter
Amimojo
Every socialist
Every Russian
The first two will menstruate all over you. The second two will covet thy washing machine.
Re: (Score:2)
Blue Origin's New Glenn made it to orbit on January 16, 2025 so they've already made it to space. Obviously that wasn't a manned mission- but the rocket itself performed pretty well for a first flight and successfully delivered its payload.
Re: (Score:2)
As contrasted with Starship, which ain't lookin so good at the moment. Not to deny the amazing accomplishments of SpaceX, but space is hard.
Re: (Score:2)
BO went to space, the (arbitrary) limit for space is 100 km and they went over it. Going to space is about how high you go.
BO didn't get to orbit, but getting to orbit is not the same thing, it means going fast enough horizontally to avoid falling back on Earth, but not so fast as to escape Earth gravitational pull. Getting to orbit is about how fast you go. Some suborbital flights actually go higher than some orbital flights, for example, ICBMs. And we could imagine orbiting below 100km (so, officially not