Blue Origin today successfully completed its fifth crewed mission carrying five tourists into space for a 10-minute ride. The crew included a 26-year-old engineer, Katya Echazarreta, a Brazilian citizen Victor Correa Hespanha, businessman Hamish Harding, Jaison Robinson, Victor Vescovo and Evan Dick.
On Saturday, at around 8:26 am local time, the white spacecraft called New Sheperd went off its dock from Launch Site One, the company’s official site in west Texas.
Katya Echazarreta is the first youngest American lady to go into space. Her spot in New Shepherd was sponsored by Space for Humanity, a program which seeks to democratize access to space and selected Katya among 7,000 candidates for her first flight to space. On the contrary, Evan Dick flew for the second time on Saturday. He had earlier flown with the third crew in December.
The New Shepherd carried the six people above the Karman Line- an internationally recognised boundary of space that lies 62 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface – in a typical 11-minute flight.
Blue origin – is the leader in the nascent space tourism market. It flew Bezos, his brother and a few others on its maiden flight in 2021