World: Nine days after Richard Brandson flew to the edge of space onboard his VAA Unity, Jeff Bezos, world’s second billionaire and founder of Amazon and Blue Origin would soar up to the edge in his own rocket.
Blue Origin is all set to launch its first crewed mission on its Shepard rocket today at 6:30 am CT ( 5:00 pm IST). Shepard would launch from a desert in West Texas. Apart from his twin brother, Jeff includes an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer from Texas Wally Funk and Oliver Daeman 18-year-old from the Netherlands, setting records for the youngest and the oldest to hurtle off the planet.
Jeff Bezos is aiming for an altitude of roughly 66 miles, ten miles more than Richard Branson’s ride on July 11. Since the capsule is fully automated, no trained staff has been deployed on the shuttle for the quick and up and down ride expected to last for just 10 minutes. Blue Origin on Tuesday tweeted,” Our astronauts have completed training and are a go for launch.”
Shepard has been under trials since 2015. So far 15 successful tests have been conducted for a foolproof visit of Jeff. Blue origin would also conduct a pre-launch mission briefing from the Launch Site. This will be the world’s first unpiloted flight to space with an all civilian crew.