The first all-female Blue Origin crew in six decades has gone into space.
On April 14, the aerospace company Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, sent an all-female crew into suborbital space for the first time.
Reuters reports this.
About the crew and ticket prices
This launch was the first all-female spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova's historic mission in 1963.
The team includes singer Katy Perry, TV host Gayle King, scientist Amanda Nguyen, engineer Aisha Bowie, producer Keriann Flynn, and Lauren Sanchez, partner of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
Although the exact cost of tickets for Blue Origin flights is not officially disclosed, Space reports that the company's main competitor in the field of space tourism – Virgin Galactic – has set the price for one seat at $650,000.
What is known about the ship?
New Shepard is an 18-meter (59 ft) suborbital spacecraft built by Blue Origin. According to the company, the crew traveled at three times the speed of sound during the flight and crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space at an altitude of 100 km above sea level.
After several minutes in microgravity, the passengers returned to Earth, landing via parachute in the West Texas desert.
The rocket is named after Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, who also participated in the lunar mission and became famous for playing golf on the moon. His first flight on May 5, 1961, lasted 15 minutes and reached an altitude of over 185 km (115 miles). This took place in the midst of a fierce rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had just launched Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut in history.
About Blue Origin
Blue Origin is a private aerospace company founded by billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The New Shepard rocket made its first manned flight in July 2021, carrying Bezos himself and his brother Mark into space. Since then, the spacecraft has carried notable figures such as former NFL player Michael Strahan and actor William Shatner, who at 90 became the oldest person in space.
In addition to tourist missions, the company is also developing satellite launches and is a potential competitor to SpaceX.