Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin blasts third private crew into space

The flight marked the third of what Blue Origin hopes will be multiple space tour launches, taking wealthy customers to the edge of space.

It is the first time that Blue Origin has filled all six seats on its New Shepard rocket and capsule, which is named after Alan Shepard.

As CNN reports, in the company’s last two flights — including the July flight that sent Bezos himself into space — only four seats were occupied.

The group flew aboard Blue Origin’s suborbital space tourism rocket at 9:01 a.m. CT from the company’s launch facilities near the rural town of Van Horn, Texas, and made a supersonic, 10-minute flight more than 60 miles above Earth’s surface. reached up. Before parachuting for landing.

The crew included Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, daughter of legendary astronaut Alan Shepard, and four paying customers on the supersonic joy ride.

Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father Alan Shepard went on an orbital flight in 1961 and later walked on the Moon, along with investors Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick and Len Bess, as well as Bess’s adult child, Cameron Bess – all Rided. of which customers were paying, CNN reported.

Blue Origin stated that Strahan and Shepard Churchley were “honorary guests”, much like the last celebrity Blue Origin, William Shatner had been sent to the edge of space, and did not have to pay his own.

Strahan announced her plans to join the flight during a segment on Good Morning America last month, noting that Blue Origin had her measured for her flight suit and that she had to make sure it would fit. One of the seats of the New Shepard capsule was tested.

It’s not clear how much money customers who paid on Saturday’s flight spent for their seats. As CNN reports, Blue Origin has not publicly identified the price of the ticket, although the company hosted an auction with Bezos earlier this year to sell an extra seat.