FP TrendingJul 16, 2021 12:38:44 IST
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is going to be launched in space on 20 July. The billionaire will use his company’s Blue Origin New Shepard rocket and will be in space for a total of 11 minutes. The date has been chosen as it is exactly 52 years after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps on the moon.
NASA-supported payloads – including a precision landing suite – will undergo testing from launch to landing aboard the #NewShepard flight. Image credit: NASA/Twitter
Blue Origin’s Launch Site One is located in a remote location in the West Texas desert and will not have an on-site public viewing area, reports Forbes. The company has also said that the Texas Department of Transportation will be closing a portion of State Highway 54.
On 12 July, the company received its license from the US Federal Aviation Administration to launch into space.
Along with Bezos, the first Blue Origin flight will have three more people as part of the New Shepherd crew. The four-member crew includes Bezos’ brother Mark, aeronautics pioneer Wally Funk and an 18-year-old Oliver Daemen.
If the flight becomes successful then Funk would become the oldest astronaut ever at the age of 82 while Daemen will be the youngest.
The reusable New Shepard rocket was created by Blue Origin which officially emerged in 2015. As per the CNET report, the company initially worked in silence for a decade. After almost two decades of work, the rocket can now launch people into space.
There have been as many as 15 test flights after which Blue Origin will be launching its first rocket with a crew.
The first crewed flight of Blue Origin can be watched here. The timing of the flight launch is 6:30 pm IST but it can change depending on weather or technical issues. The live stream will begin 90 minutes before the scheduled launch time.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin has also revealed that Daemen will become their first customer. Previously, the ticket to space through the New Shephard flight was auctioned for USD 28 million. However, the company has said that Daemen is not the person who won the auction. The winner of the auction will be flying on a future New Shepard mission as there were some issues with the schedule.
