Written by Kenneth Chang
One other week, one other billionaire with a rocket firm going to house. Final week, it was Richard Branson incomes his astronaut wings using an area airplane from Virgin Galactic, an organization he based 14 years in the past, to an altitude of greater than 50 miles above the skies of New Mexico.
On Tuesday, it will likely be Jeff Bezos, the richest human being within the universe, who will strap right into a capsule constructed by his rocket firm, Blue Origin, and blast off even increased, to greater than 62 miles above West Texas.
When is the launch and the way can I watch it?
Blue Origin is aiming for the rocket to take off at 9 a.m. Japanese time Tuesday. The corporate will start protection of the launch at 7:30 a.m. on its YouTube channel. The date coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon touchdown.
What’s the New Shepard rocket and what’s going to it do?
New Shepard, the Blue Origin spacecraft, is known as after Alan Shepard, the primary American in house. It consists of a booster and a capsule on high, the place the passengers shall be.
Not like Virgin Galactic’s house airplane, New Shepard is extra of a conventional rocket, taking off vertically. As soon as the booster has used up its propellant — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen — the capsule detaches from the booster.
#NewShepard is go for launch on July 20 for #NSFirstHumanFlight. That is the sixteenth flight and first with astronauts on board. Watch stay at https://t.co/7Y4TherpLr. Protection begins at 6:30 am CDT / 11:30 UTC. pic.twitter.com/hYv68UlCqm
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 12, 2021
Each items proceed to coast upward, above the 62-mile boundary usually thought of to be the start of outer house. Throughout this a part of the trajectory, the passengers will unbuckle and float across the capsule, experiencing about 4 minutes of free fall and seeing views of Earth and the blackness of house from the capsule’s giant home windows.
The booster lands first and vertically, just like the touchdowns of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. The capsule lands minutes after the booster, descending beneath a parachute and cushioned by the firing of a last-second jet of air. The entire flight ought to final about 10 minutes.
Is New Shepard secure?
Blue Origin has launched New Shepard 15 occasions — all with out anybody onboard — and the capsule landed safely each time. (On the primary launch, the booster crashed; on the following 14 launches, the booster landed intact.
Security is and can at all times be our high precedence. Hear from Gary Lai and Laura Stiles about our strategy to security and reliability. Watch the #NSFirstHumanFlight launch stay on https://t.co/7Y4TherpLr pic.twitter.com/xiHJpOyQ2p
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 19, 2021
Throughout one flight in 2016, Blue Origin carried out an in-flight check of the rocket’s escape system the place thrusters whisked away the capsule from a malfunctioning booster.
A solid-fuel rocket on the backside of the crew capsule fired for 1.8 seconds, exerting 70,000 kilos of power to shortly separate the capsule and steer it out of the best way of the booster. Its parachutes deployed, and the capsule landed softly.
Not solely did the capsule survive, the booster was capable of proper itself, proceed to house, after which, firing its engine once more, land a few miles north of the launchpad in West Texas, a bit charred however intact.
Who else is aboard the flight?
Bezos is bringing alongside his youthful brother. Mark Bezos, 50, has lived a extra personal life. He’s a co-founder and basic associate at HighPost Capital, a personal fairness agency. Mark Bezos beforehand labored as head of communications on the Robin Hood Basis, a charity that aids anti-poverty efforts in New York Metropolis.
Blue Origin auctioned off one of many seats, with the proceeds going to Membership for the Future, a space-focused charity based by Bezos. The profitable bidder paid $28 million — and we nonetheless have no idea who that was.
Final week, the corporate introduced that the public sale winner had determined to attend till a subsequent flight “attributable to scheduling conflicts.
As a substitute, Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old pupil from the Netherlands who was one of many runners-up within the public sale, and who had bought a ticket on the second New Shepard flight, was bumped up.
The fourth passenger is Mary Wallace Funk — she goes by Wally — a pilot who within the Nineteen Sixties was amongst a gaggle of ladies who handed the identical rigorous standards that NASA used for choosing astronauts.
This text initially appeared in The New York Instances.
