With “Captain Kirk” on board, Blue Origin returns in “Space, This Are the Voyages”

The murals of billionaire Jeff Bezos and his space company Blue Origin are empty the day before his company sends “Star Trek” actor William Shatner into space from a company facility in Banhorn, TX. United, October 12. Decorate the sides of the building. 2021.Reuters / Mike Break

12 October 2021

Mike Pause

Banhorn, Texas (Reuters) – Three months after US billionaire Jeff Bezos jumped into space on a rocket made by Blue Origin, the ship put another civilian crew into orbit on Wednesday. I plan to put it below. Star Trek actor William Shatner stars.

As one of the four passengers chosen for the flight, Shatner is 90 years old and set to become the oldest man in space adventure.

Shatner became the flagship of pop culture, playing Captain James T. Kirk of Spaceship Enterprise, in the classic 1960s television series and seven films thereafter. Shatner fulfilled the mission described in the opening credits of each episode of the series and began to explore “The Universe-The Last Frontier”.

“I’m going to see the vast universe and the extraordinary miracles of our Earth, and how fragile it is compared to the forces that work in the universe,” Shatner told NBC’s “Today” program. paddy field. “I am excited, anxious, a little nervous and a little afraid of this brand new adventure.”

On Wednesday, after a 24-hour wind-related postponement, Shatner and his fellow travelers were linked to Blue Origin’s fully self-contained New Shepard rocket 60 feet high at 9 a.m. CDT (1000 EDT / 1400 GMT) on a trip to the edge of space from a launch site outside the rural town of Van Horn, West Texas.

Blue Origin said on Twitter that the four crew members had been trained on Tuesday and the mission team had performed a flight readiness assessment to ensure “all systems are on.”

“The expected wind at launch has calmed down and the weather on Wednesday looks good for now,” added Blue Origin.

The launch will compete with millionaire-backed rivals from Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings, even as they pay a fortune to experience the euphoria of spaceflight. It represents another important test of Blue Origin’s technology to attract customers willing to accept it.

Wednesday’s flight was the first commercial trip to Blue Origin on July 20, when Bezos, the founder of the Amazon.com Inc e-commerce powerhouse, and three other passengers took a suborbital flight of just over 10 minutes. It is expected to follow the period and route almost.

The New Shepard vehicle transported 107 km (66.5 miles) of quartets above Earth, giving passengers a few minutes of weightlessness, then the crew capsules were safely parachuted to the ground of the Texas desert. On this flight, pioneering female pilot Wally Funk https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/pioneering-female-aviator-wally-funk-is-americas-new-sweetheart-2021-07-20 at 82 years old became the oldest man to reach the universe.

The three other crew members who joined Shatner are: Former NASA engineer Chris Boschuisen. Glen de Vries, entrepreneur in clinical research. Audrey Powers, Vice President and Engineer of Blue Origin https://www.blueorigin.com/news/shatner-powers-announced-ns18.

Shatner said Blue Origin approached him to board the plane, but the company did not disclose how much passengers paid or were allowed to fly for free.

Less than two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would address safety concerns raised by former and current Blue Origin employees, the company has prioritized speed and cost savings. Claimed to be https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-review-safety-concerns-raised-by-former-blue-origin-employee-2021-09-30 Quality control and suitability To About the endowment.

Founded by Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin has vowed to investigate allegations of fraud, defended its safety records, and described New Shepard as “the safest spacecraft ever designed or manufactured.” I called him.

Branson launches space travel https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/virgin-galactics-branson-ready-space-launch-aboard-rocket-plane-2021-07-11 on July 11. low. Flight into orbit with six other people aboard his company’s VSS Unity rocket-powered aircraft.

The most established player in the industry is SpaceX, a company founded in 2002 by Musk, CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla. SpaceX has launched a number of astronauts and cargo payloads onto the International Space Station in orbit from NASA.

SpaceX leads the space travel industry https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/spacex-capsule-with-worlds-first-all-civilian-orbital-crew-set-splashdown-2021-09-18 Done his beginnings. The first fully civilian crew to reach Earth orbit in a three-day flight through September 18.

(Report by Mike Blake, supplementary and written report by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Peter Szekely in New York, edited by Will Dunham)