Blue Origin successfully completed its first human launch to space

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and the richest man in the world, has completed the first human flight along with three other private citizens onboard. The crew, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen, are now officially astronauts after passing the Karman Line, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.

The crew lifted off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site at 9:12 AM EDT.

Wally Funk, an 82-year-old woman, became the oldest person to fly in space. Oliver Daemen, 18, was the first-ever commercial astronaut to purchase a ticket and fly to space on a privately-funded and licensed space vehicle. He is also the youngest person to fly in space. While Jeff and Mark Bezos became the first siblings to fly in space together.

New Shepard is the first commercial vehicle to fly paying customers to space and back. The vehicle, which shot up using 110,000 pounds of force, rapidly accelerated as it consumed its load of liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants.

The crew capsule reached a maximum altitude of 351,210 feet, with the rocket reaching a top speed of 2,233 mph during the launch. The total mission time from launch to capsule landing was 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

Blue Origin expects to fly two more flights this year, with more crewed flights planned for 2022.

Source: Blue Origin