On the first crewed mission from his company Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is poised to rocket to the edge of space and spend a few minutes outside Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday.
According to Bloomberg data, Bezos is the world’s richest man, and he has stated that spaceflight will fulfill a longstanding goal.
The Amazon CEO will be joined on the historic voyage by his brother, Mark Bezos, as well as the world’s oldest and youngest astronauts, Wally Funk, 82, and Oliver Daemon, 18. Funk is a trailblazing female pilot who prepared to be an astronaut during the first US-Soviet space race but was told at the time that they were only sending males to orbit. Daemon is a Dutch student who will start courses at Utrecht University in the autumn and is Blue Origin’s first paying client after the first auction winner pulled out.
What’s going on and how can I keep track of it?
The first Blue Origin flight is expected to take off at 9 a.m. ET from a remote facility north of Van Horn, Texas. The journey will last 11 minutes in total, with around three minutes spent above the so-called Karman line, which some consider being the border between Earth’s atmosphere and space. The astronauts will return to Earth in their capsule after re-entry, parachute-landing in the west Texas desert.
The completely autonomous capsule does not have a pilot. While Blue Origin’s New Shepard has completed 15 test flights, Tuesday’s trip will be the first to include humans.
While the modern space race has become the domain of the ultra-rich at a time when a global pandemic on Earth has exacerbated inequities, some argue that the rise of private sector involvement has saved NASA money and has accelerated technological advancements, which in the long-run has the potential to open up space tourism to all who have ever been curious about the cosmos.
Bezos said he’s wondering how temporarily leaving Earth would “transform” him in an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” only one day before the voyage.
“I have no idea what that means for me,” Bezos remarked. “I’m not sure, but I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings. Everyone who has traveled to space claims that it has changed them in some manner. And I’m really looking forward to seeing how it will affect me.”