#Jeff bezos blue origin free#

“Best day ever,” Bezos said after the capsule touched down.įor Blue Origin it was indeed a good day-though how soon the company will begin flying commercial passengers able to pay in the low six figures for a 10-minute vacation is unclear. The rocket itself landed up right on a pad 3.2 km (2 mi.) north of the launch site. About 2 m (six ft.) above ground, a blast of air was released from the bottom of the capsule, providing a cushioning that set the passengers down at a speed of less than 3.2 k/h (2 mph).

#Jeff bezos blue origin free#

The ride down was a free fall for the passengers-subjecting them to a maximum gravitational force of 5.5 g’s-before three small drogue parachutes opened, followed by three main parachutes, slowly lowering the capsule toward the dusty Texas scrubland. Twenty seconds later, the crew capsule-which can accommodate up to six people in a roomy 15 cubic m (530 cubic ft) interior-separated from the booster, and continued coasting upward, breaking the Von Karman barrier and affording the crew about four minutes of weightlessness and sightseeing. The engine burned for just over two minutes, accelerating the ship to a maximum speed of 3,540 k/h (2,200 mph), and an altitude of roughly 80 km (50 mi.). The compact 18 m (60-ft.) tall rocket is powered by a single engine, fueled by clean-burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-the same fuel NASA used for the second and third stages of its legendary Saturn V moon rocket. Still, the machinery on display today was impressive and flew its flight profile faultlessly. Bezos’ flight just barely cleared that bar. In fact, Shepard actually bested Bezos and his crew-at least in terms of altitude, flying to a loftier 187 km, easily exceeding the 100 km (62 mi.) Von Karman line, which is the internationally recognized boundary of space.

It essentially replicated the suborbital flight of the first American in space, Alan Shepard (after whom the rocket is named), which took place just over 60 years ago. CT, was, by modern-day standards, a modest affair. The flight, which lifted off from the Texas desert shortly after 8:00 a.m. Today, the rocket-which had previously flown 15 uncrewed missions to suborbital space-indeed proved safe not just for Bezos, but for the three other passengers aboard with him: Wally Funk, 82, an aviator and flight instructor and now the oldest person to fly in space Mark Bezos, marketing executive and volunteer firefighter and Jeff Bezos’s brother and Oliver Daemen, 18, a paying passenger who became the youngest person to fly in space, after his father, the founder of the Dutch hedge fund Somerset Capital Partners, purchased him the seat for an undisclosed multimillion dollar price tag.