Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture launched six more travelers to the edge of the final frontier today, even as the billionaire and his new wife finished up a weekend of wedding festivities in Venice.
The New Shepard rocket lifted off from the Kent, Wash.-based company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:39 a.m. CT (7:39 a.m. PT) today for a 10-minute mission.
An earlier launch attempt had to be scrubbed on June 21 due to concerns about persistent winds at the launch site.
Bezos himself was otherwise engaged during the buildup to today’s launch: He and former journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez Bezos left Venice today for their honeymoon after a highly publicized, star-studded weekend of activities surrounding their wedding.
This was Blue Origin’s 33nd New Shepard suborbital launch and its 13th crewed mission. New Shepard’s booster sent the crew capsule to a height of 105 kilometers (65 miles, or 345,044 feet) above ground level, just beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.
After stage separation, the reusable booster descended to a landing pad under autonomous control. Meanwhile, the spacefliers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and got an astronaut’s-eye view of Earth beneath a black sky. At the end of the ride, the capsule made a parachute-aided descent to the rangeland surrounding the launch site.
Since 2021, Blue Origin has flown 70 suborbital space travelers, including “Star Trek” captain William Shatner and pop superstar Katy Perry, as well as Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos (on separate missions).
The lineup for the NS-33 mission included:
- Allie Kuehner, an environmentalist and conservationist who serves on the board of a nonprofit group called Nature is Nonpartisan.
- Carl Kuehner, the chairman of Building and Land Technology, a real estate firm focusing on long-term growth and sustainability. Allie and Carl are the second married couple to travel together on New Shepard.
- Leland Larson, former CEO of School Bus Services and Larson Transportation Services. In 1997, Leland co-founded the Larson Legacy, an Oregon-based philanthropic organization.
- Freddie Rescigno Jr., an Italian-American entrepreneur, business owner and competitive golfer. He’s the president and CEO of Commodity Cables, which provides wires and cables for electrical distribution and networking.
- Owolabi Salis, an attorney and financial consultant. He is the author of “Equitocracy,” which presents a vision for democracy that prioritizes equity among diverse groups, and is also a key member of The Soulmaker Ministry.
- Jim Sitkin, a retired Calfornia lawyer who has focused on employment class actions on behalf of non-unionized employees. He’s currently a volunteer for a non-governmental organization, facilitating meetings with government and community leaders in Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to the travelers, Blue Origin’s crew capsule carried more than 1,000 digital and physical postcards that were sent in as part of an educational campaign organized by the Club for the Future, the company’s nonprofit foundation. Today’s batch included postcards from Seattle’s Museum of Flight and from Parkcrest Elementary School in Burnaby, B.C.
The suborbital New Shepard operation is just one of Blue Origin’s space programs. Here are recent updates on the company’s other initiatives:
- The European Space Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with Blue Origin and Thales Alenia Space to facilitate space exploration efforts in low Earth orbit. They’ll work together to explore opportunities for European payloads and crew members to use the Orbital Reef space station, a project that’s being led by Blue Origin in collaboration with Sierra Space, Boeing and other commercial partners.
- Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp confirmed that the company will open a European headquarters in Luxembourg. “I look forward to engaging more deeply with suppliers across Europe,” Limp said in a LinkedIn post. “We chose the country for its strong investment in space, the government’s support for our growth and long-term vision, and its central location.”
- The second launch of Blue Origin’s orbital-class New Glenn rocket is scheduled for no earlier than Aug. 15. The booster has been nicknamed “Never Tell Me the Odds,” Limp said. “One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster,” he said on LinkedIn. “This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution.” The first test launch in January successfully sent a payload to orbit, but the booster was lost.
