The launch is scheduled for Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET
The latest in a series of private space tourist flights sent by Blue Origin
This is set to be the first flight into orbit with an all-female crew since Russian Valentina Tereshkova circled Earth 48 times in less than three days in 1963. The group of women – including famous pop star Katy Perry and the fiancee of US billionaire Jeff Bezos Lauren Sanchez – will fly to the edge of space in Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket.
They are the latest in a series of private space tourists that “Blue Origin” will send into orbit, since 2021 launches with human crews will begin in the “New Shepard” spacecraft, which is named after the first American in space Alan Shepard and consists of a rocket and a capsule for up to six passengers.
The launch, scheduled for Monday in western Texas, will be the company’s 11th manned flight, out of a total of 31, USA Today reports. However, it will go down in history because only women will be on it.
Who are the women going into orbit?
The group of six women is part of the commercial space mission NS-31, and consists of:
Aisha Bowie – former NASA rocket scientist, executive director of the engineering firm “STEMbord” and founder of the company LINGO, which teaches students technological skills
Amanda Nguyen – prominent civil rights activist and bioastronautics researcher who worked on NASA’s last space shuttle mission, STS-135, and the Kepler space telescope searching for exoplanets
Gayle King – journalist and host best known for the show “Mornings with CBS”
Katy Perry – pop star and former judge on “American Idol”
Kerrien Flynn – Film producer known for her contributions to the 2018 documentary This Changes Everything, which deals with sexism in Hollywood
Lauren Sanchez – Emmy Award-winning journalist and fiancée of Jeff Bezos
The trip itself will be, of course, in “women’s style”. The “New Shepard” team revealed to “El” that the crew will be “glamorous”, all with hair and makeup.
When is the launch?
According to Blue Origin, the launch window for “The New Shepard” opens Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET (3:30 p.m. ET).
Like all of the company’s launches, the rocket will take off from the Van launch site, a private ranch in rural West Texas more than 140 miles (220 kilometers) east of El Paso.
Blue Origin plans to broadcast the launch live, with details to be announced soon.
What will happen during the summer?
“New Shepard” takes its passengers on a short journey above the Karman line, the internationally recognized limit of space at an altitude of 100 km.
The last manned flight was on February 25, and so far 10 of the 30 Blue Origin missions have taken 52 people to the edge of space. Bezos himself was on the first crewed flight in 2021, as part of the NS-16 mission, after 15 test flights since 2012.
Each space flight lasts about 11 minutes, from takeoff to descent, and allows passengers to experience weightlessness and see the curvature of our planet. The aircraft operates autonomously, which means that there is no pilot on board.
“New Shepard” is a reusable launch vehicle, with a capsule that returns to Earth using three parachutes. The rocket itself is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which brings it to suborbit, followed by a controlled landing back on the launch pad.
Although Blue Origin does not list prices publicly on its website, the seat reservation form requires buyers to deposit $150,000.
What do we know about the spacecraft?
As “US Today” writes, the launch comes at a time when “Blue Origin” is becoming a major player in the commercial space industry, alongside other companies such as Elon Musk’s “SpaceX”, Bezos’s rival.
The spacecraft of the company “New Shepard” does not only take private clientele into orbit. In early February, the spacecraft successfully simulated the low gravity of the Moon in its capsule during a short flight. The ship carried cargo from NASA, which helped fund the mission as it prepares to send humans back to Earth’s satellite in the coming years as part of its Artemis mission.
Blue Origin is also developing its massive New Glenn rocket, which launched in January on its maiden flight.
The heavy-duty launch vehicle, 100 meters high, was launched without a crew on January 16 from Florida and is intended to compete with “SpaceX” in regularly placing satellites and other cargo into orbit.
Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, New Glenn is comparable in size to Musk’s 120-meter Starship. Its first stage, powered by seven “Blue Origin” engines known as BE-4, is designed to be reusable for 25 missions.