The New Shepard rocket launched from a spaceport in Texas, carrying a six-person all-female crew into space.
The competitive battle in space tourism is gaining momentum. The New Shepard rocket, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company, launched from a spaceport in Texas, carrying a six-person all-female crew into space — the first since Valentina Tereshkova’s flight in 1963.
Bezos sent his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, and five other women into space: CBS anchor Gayle King, former NASA rocketeer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Keriann Flynn and pop singer Katy Perry.
How the flight went
The New Shepard rocket reached the so-called Karman line – the recognized boundary of space, located at an altitude of about 100 km above the Earth’s surface.
The fully automated ship rose to this height vertically, then the capsule with the crew separated and descended to the ground using parachutes and a rocket brake.
The flight lasted about 11 minutes, during which time there was a state of weightlessness on board.
The NS-31 mission was the 11th human space flight for the New Shepard rocket of Blue Origin and the 31st in its history. To date, 52 people have gone into space under the program. How much does one seat on New Shepard cost, the company does not disclose.
The first and last all-female space flight took place more than 60 years ago, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to make a solo space flight on the Vostok-6 spacecraft.
A New Space Race
In January, Blue Origin’s more powerful rocket, called New Glenn, successfully completed its first unmanned orbital flight. In the future, Blue Origin plans to deliver space tourists to orbit, directly competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
In general, according to experts, it is between Musk and Bezos that the main struggle for commercial space launches will unfold. So far, SpaceX is noticeably ahead of its competitor: Falcon 9 rockets have already launched 469 times. In contrast, Blue Origin has carried out only 31 successful launches of its New Shepard ship.
Nevertheless, Blue Origin remains in second place in this space battle. SpaceX is currently producing and launching two rockets: Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. A feature of these rockets is the development of booster stages that return to Earth for repairs, which saves money and helps SpaceX bypass competitors.
SpaceX and Blue Origin have already clashed in court over billions of dollars in government funding, and their owners have traded barbs on the social media platform X (also owned by Musk).
Musk’s rivals fear he is seeking to create a monopoly in the private space industry. Blue Origin is already sounding the alarm about SpaceX’s potentially unfair competitive advantage in the space race.
