Blue Origin’s 10-minute suborbital flight lifted off from Key West, Texas on Sunday, June 29.
Blue Origin Launch Video by VideoFromSpace
Blue Origin Launches 6 Tourists from Texas
Blue Origin has achieved another new milestone in aviation today, in which it launched six private citizens from Texas on a suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepherd rocket. This officially marked the 750th human journey in space history, which is a great milestone for which Blue Origin is making its name.
This flight was designed in NS-33, which lifted off from the company’s launch site in Van Horn, Texas, at 9:38 a.m. at 14:38 CDT (UTC) after being delayed due to weather. It finally launched over the weekend.
The Historic Flight: Who Flew and Why It Matters
The NS-33 mission carried a diverse crew that included six spaceflight participants, each representing their unique backgrounds or inspirations.
- Allie and Carl Kuehner: A husband and wife team of environmentalists and explorers committed to conservation.
- Leland Larson: A philanthropist and beekeeper who serves his pollinator habitats.
- Freddie Rescigno Jr.: An entrepreneur and avid golfer who is the founder of commodity cables.
- Owolabi Salis: A lawyer, author, or advocate for social justice who dedicated his life to civil rights.
- Jim Sitkin: A retired attorney from his extensive work in Central Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.
This mission is a landmark for Blue Origin, which features a series of private astronauts conducting missions that offer a few minutes of weightlessness and breathtaking views of Earth, after which the capsule returns to the Texas desert on its parachutes. This is achieved using this reusable BE-3 PM booster that flies flawlessly and makes a vertical landing on its landing pad just a few miles from the launch site.
A key highlight: The mission includes becoming the 750th person to reach space, according to international astronauts tracking databases, which is a significant milestone that marks that humanity is expanding its reach beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
NS-33, which faced multiple delays due to winds blowing from the high west of Texas, was initially scheduled for June 21 but was postponed twice, after which it was finally launched now that the weather has cleared. This postponement reflects Blue Origin’s commitment to passenger safety and mission integrity.
As soon as the conditions stabilized, the countdown was resumed and lift-off was done at 9:38 a.m. CDT is a typical 10-minute flight profile of New Shepard.
New Shepard and the Sub-Orbital Experience
Blue Origin’s suborbital mission, which was carried out by New Shepard, is a fully autonomous rocket that flies a single-stage rocket up to a Karman line about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth and automatically returns to its landing pad. The crew capsule then detaches by parachute. This is a highly reliable system that has been repeated 32 times, including 12 crewed missions that carried more than 70 passengers.
The passengers who roughly experience 3 minutes of weightlessness or a very expensive view of the curvature of the Earth which is seen through large windows, these moments describe emotional and life-changing things. The latest travelers who have joined this growing community of commercial astronauts and researchers who are building space tourism.
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What Lies Ahead
Next, look at Blue Origin, which is preparing for its next mission, which is NS-34, and is also accelerating the development of the new Glenn rocket’s heavy-lift, which has now been targeted for a debut no earlier than 2025. This company is doing a lot of deep work, taking the services of its orbital launch, satellite deployment, or possibly crew missions or suborbital flights beyond.
Like the success of the NS-33, which continues to drive public interest in family-funded missions and research payload deployment in microgravity.
