The Japan Times - Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space after two year hiatus

EUR -
AED 3.838524
AFN 78.306837
ALL 98.671743
AMD 418.568849
ANG 1.881052
AOA 955.707946
ARS 1094.170111
AUD 1.654384
AWG 1.881104
AZN 1.778389
BAM 1.965803
BBD 2.107372
BDT 127.28321
BGN 1.962311
BHD 0.393835
BIF 3088.500349
BMD 1.045058
BND 1.416131
BOB 7.212553
BRL 6.191342
BSD 1.043703
BTN 90.1749
BWP 14.486653
BYN 3.415738
BYR 20483.130157
BZD 2.096536
CAD 1.49727
CDF 2974.23363
CHF 0.94607
CLF 0.037402
CLP 1032.046371
CNY 7.577811
CNH 7.584046
COP 4416.685391
CRC 526.722545
CUC 1.045058
CUP 27.694028
CVE 110.626784
CZK 25.096744
DJF 185.866061
DKK 7.461148
DOP 64.049462
DZD 140.757627
EGP 52.564419
ERN 15.675865
ETB 133.462062
FJD 2.44183
FKP 0.860696
GBP 0.842975
GEL 2.994081
GGP 0.860696
GHS 15.812637
GIP 0.860696
GMD 75.244222
GNF 9025.516223
GTQ 8.06638
GYD 218.36307
HKD 8.137942
HNL 26.572902
HRK 7.712053
HTG 136.40609
HUF 409.914471
IDR 16910.287025
ILS 3.740159
IMP 0.860696
INR 90.174734
IQD 1367.245148
IRR 43983.864012
ISK 145.891906
JEP 0.860696
JMD 164.086614
JOD 0.741467
JPY 162.928677
KES 135.167517
KGS 91.388512
KHR 4202.744271
KMF 493.686139
KPW 940.552011
KRW 1494.667571
KWD 0.322003
KYD 0.869828
KZT 543.436806
LAK 22756.202053
LBP 93466.971469
LKR 311.65623
LRD 206.665861
LSL 19.373773
LTL 3.085784
LVL 0.632145
LYD 5.13675
MAD 10.43638
MDL 19.465472
MGA 4893.001625
MKD 61.556067
MMK 3394.306518
MNT 3551.106044
MOP 8.374226
MRU 41.573356
MUR 48.553199
MVR 16.091201
MWK 1809.918994
MXN 21.21524
MYR 4.61968
MZN 66.778242
NAD 19.373587
NGN 1626.120421
NIO 38.405598
NOK 11.756162
NPR 144.27984
NZD 1.831714
OMR 0.402268
PAB 1.043708
PEN 3.88162
PGK 4.189742
PHP 61.035021
PKR 290.916704
PLN 4.21425
PYG 8252.910594
QAR 3.804843
RON 4.975417
RSD 117.116434
RUB 104.371678
RWF 1448.838148
SAR 3.919792
SBD 8.82713
SCR 14.910103
SDG 628.080029
SEK 11.45529
SGD 1.410687
SHP 0.860696
SLE 23.736479
SLL 21914.33654
SOS 596.550906
SRD 36.686747
STD 21630.583621
SVC 9.132692
SYP 13587.839694
SZL 19.381383
THB 35.332878
TJS 11.42386
TMT 3.657702
TND 3.332398
TOP 2.447633
TRY 37.303961
TTD 7.095067
TWD 34.08612
TZS 2629.364885
UAH 43.837061
UGX 3846.561038
USD 1.045058
UYU 45.679386
UZS 13547.173808
VES 58.745903
VND 26204.820851
VUV 124.071344
WST 2.927026
XAF 658.10922
XAG 0.033928
XAU 0.000376
XCD 2.824321
XDR 0.80423
XOF 658.102902
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.320564
ZAR 19.249607
ZMK 9406.772035
ZMW 29.041697
ZWL 336.50814
  • RBGPF

    61.2800

    61.28

    +100%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    12.55

    +0.16%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    11.6

    +0.17%

  • RELX

    0.1300

    49.39

    +0.26%

  • BCC

    0.5300

    128.45

    +0.41%

  • NGG

    0.6600

    60.71

    +1.09%

  • GSK

    0.6200

    34.05

    +1.82%

  • CMSD

    -0.0900

    23.87

    -0.38%

  • RIO

    0.4400

    61.56

    +0.71%

  • CMSC

    -0.0050

    23.485

    -0.02%

  • BCE

    0.0700

    23.22

    +0.3%

  • BTI

    0.4800

    37.05

    +1.3%

  • RYCEF

    0.2800

    7.55

    +3.71%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.4

    +0.24%

  • BP

    0.3600

    31.49

    +1.14%

  • AZN

    0.4000

    68.6

    +0.58%

Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space after two year hiatus
Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space after two year hiatus / Photo: Patrick T. FALLON - AFP/File

Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space after two year hiatus

Blue Origin is set to fly adventurers to the final frontier on Sunday for the first time in nearly two years, reigniting competition in the space tourism market after a rocket mishap put its crewed operations on hold.

Text size:

Six people including Black sculptor and former Air Force pilot Ed Dwight, who was controversially spurned by NASA's astronaut corps in the 1960s, will blast off at around 8:30 am local time (1330 GMT) from the company's Launch Site One base in west Texas.

Dwight -- at 90 years, 8 months and 10 days -- is set to become the oldest person to go to space, narrowly pipping Star Trek actor William Shatner, who was almost two months younger when he launched with Blue Origin in 2021.

Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for the enterprise owned and founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who sees short jaunts on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a stepping stone to greater ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy rocket and lunar lander.

French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, one of the crew, told AFP he was most excited about "this sensation of leaving the world of men and seeing the Earth as a whole, from above, without borders, with all its fragility and beauty."

To date, Blue Origin has flown 31 people aboard New Shepard -- a small, fully reusable rocket system named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

- Second nonagenarian -

The program encountered a setback when a New Shepard rocket caught fire shortly after launch on September 12, 2022. The uncrewed capsule ejected in time, meaning astronauts would have been safe had they flown.

A federal investigation revealed an overheating engine nozzle was at fault. Blue Origin took corrective steps and carried out a successful uncrewed launch in December 2023, paving the way for Sunday's mission.

After lift-off, the sleek and roomy capsule separates from the booster, which produces zero carbon emissions as its fuel -- liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen -- combust to produce water vapor. The rocket performs a precision vertical landing.

As the spaceship soars beyond the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, passengers can marvel at the Earth's curvature and unbuckle their seats to float -- or even perform jumping jacks -- during a few minutes of weightlessness.

The capsule then reenters the atmosphere, deploying its parachutes for a gentle desert landing in a puff of sand.

Bezos himself was on the program's first ever crewed flight in 2021. A few months later, Shatner blurred the lines between science fiction and reality when he became the world's oldest ever astronaut, decades after he first played a space traveler.

Dwight will become only the second nonagenarian to venture beyond Earth.

Ticket prices are a well-guarded secret, but guests like Dwight -- whose seat was sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity -- ride for free.

- To space, finally -

Blue Origin's competitor in suborbital space is Virgin Galactic, which deploys a supersonic spaceplane that is dropped from beneath the wings of a massive carrier plane at high altitude.

Virgin Galactic experienced its own two-year safety pause because of an anomaly linked with the 2021 flight that carried its founder British tycoon Richard Branson into space. But the company later hit its stride with half a dozen successful flights in quick succession.

Its next mission is set for June, after which it will head into another pause to build out a new class of advanced spaceplane.

Sunday's mission finally gives Dwight the chance he was denied decades ago.

He was an elite test pilot when he was appointed by president John F Kennedy to join a highly competitive Air Force program known as a pathway for the astronaut corps, but was ultimately not picked.

He left the military in 1966, citing the strain of racial politics, before dedicating his life to telling Black history through sculpture. His art, displayed around the country, includes iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and more.

H.Takahashi--JT