Blue Origin plans to fly an all-female crew to suborbital space within the subsequent yr or so, in line with a report in The Wall Avenue Journal.
The information comes courtesy of Lauren Sanchez, the girlfriend of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Sanchez spoke to the Journal for a narrative that was published on Wednesday (Jan. 25) (opens in new tab), revealing that she plans to steer the six-person mission aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital car.
We do not know the identities of the opposite 5 passengers, however Sanchez informed the Journal that they are going to be “ladies who’re making a distinction on the earth and who’re impactful and have a message to ship.” (The story is behind a paywall.)
Associated: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches 6 people to space in fourth crewed flight
The launch date is unknown at this level, however Sanchez, a media persona and skilled helicopter pilot, stated she hopes to fly by early subsequent yr.
Blue Origin has launched six crewed suborbital missions thus far, all of them profitable, with the reusable New Shepard, which consists of a first-stage booster and a crew capsule. The primary of those flights, which launched in July 2021, despatched Bezos aloft with three different individuals, together with his brother Mark and aviation pioneer Wally Funk.
The second New Shepard crewed flight, in October 2021, additionally lofted 4 individuals to the ultimate frontier. The next 4 crewed missions, nevertheless, used all six of the car’s seats.
The newest New Shepard passenger flight befell in August 2022. A month later, Blue Origin’s payload-only New Shepard car, the RSS H.G. Wells, suffered a failure during an autonomous research mission, resulting in the lack of the booster. (A special New Shepard car, RSS First Step, flies the corporate’s tourism missions.)
RSS H.G. Wells’ escape system labored as designed, rocketing the capsule away from hazard; it landed safely underneath parachutes.
New Shepard hasn’t flown, crewed or uncrewed, since that accident, which can nonetheless stay underneath investigation. Blue Origin has not but revealed what triggered the anomaly.
New Shepard flights are transient, lasting simply 11 minutes or so from liftoff to landing of the capsule. Passengers expertise a couple of minutes of weightlessness and get to see Earth in opposition to the blackness of space.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e book concerning the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).Â
