Past flights included Star Trek celebrity William Shatner, Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and pop superstar Katy Perry. File Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 8 (UPI) — Space tourism company Blue Origin launched six people in Texas on its 15th mission in the growing orbital tourism industry.
Blue Origin’s mission NS-36, space flight saw liftoff at 8:40 a.m. CDT via its launch site in west Texas after a 9:30 a.m. launch window opened for its suborbital journey in the 36th flight for its reusable rocket-capsule New Shepard.
“Hugs all around,” an announcer said in a live-streamed broadcast as New Shepard landed in the Texas desert.
The six-person crews reached an orbital height of 346,791 feet in the capsule after its rocket detachment reached its apogee of roughly 346,426 feet.
Passengers aboard experienced a weightless environment for a few minutes above Earth’s Karman line, some 62 miles above the planet that scientists recognized as the boundary to outer space.
The flight time hit Blue Origin estimates. The mission’s elapsed time 10 minutes 21 seconds, and the reusable capsule land around 8:50 a.m. CDT.
New Shepard has had 21 uncrewed research flights but with 15 total passengers to date.
Aboard the voyage by the company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were Blue Origin veteran Clint Kelly III, a robotics researcher, who flew on Blue Origin’s August 2022 mission. In addition to an anonymous passenger, joining Kelly were franchise executive Jeff Elgin, media entrepreneur Danna Karagussova, software entrepreneur Aaron Newman and Ukrainian businessman Vitalii Ostrovsky.
But no live interviews were to be taken but videos will be posted later, according to company officials.
However, it’s unclear just how much it costs to book a seat on New Shepard but estimates suggest a minimum $150,000 deposit with its first space ticket that cost nearly $30 million.
In June, Blue Origin lifted six space tourists on its 13th passenger flight.
Past flights included Star Trek celebrity William Shatner, Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and pop superstar Katy Perry.