(TAN): American aerospace company Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket for a 12th time as it builds on its efforts of sending humans into space, reports said. This was reportedly New Shepard’s third launch this year and the specific booster’s sixth mission.
Blue Origin was founded by American entrepreneur and founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos.
The 18-metre tall rocket took off from the company’s test site in rural Texas, rising to 104.5 kilometres into the atmosphere before the capsule on board, designed to accommodate six people, separated from the rocket booster and the two came back towards the Earth, reports said. While the booster reportedly completed a controlled descent back on the ground, the capsule landed slowly with the help of a parachute.
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“Congratulations to our New Shepard team. Look at that capsule. Man I wish I’d been on board today!” Director of Astronaut and Orbital Sales for Blue Origin, Ariane Cornell, was quoted by Forbes as saying.
The mission did not fly any crew although it featured several commercial payloads, including microgravity experiments and research, according to reports.
Built to act as a space tourism vehicle, New Shepard will reportedly take paying customers on short tours into space. Each trip, estimated to cost around USD 200,000, will last ten minutes and give travellers an idea of weightlessness before returning to Earth, reports said.
This could reportedly be one of the last test flights before the company begins launching humans to space. Though Blue Origin had hoped to send tourists to space this year, a change of plan occurred, owing to which such flights could start in 2020, according to reports.
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“We’re never going to fly until we’re absolutely ready. …we have to go look at all the analysis, and then convince ourselves that we’re ready to go. … So it probably will be next year,” Blue Origin’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Smith was quoted by CNBC as saying.
As per reports, passengers will be lodged inside the rocket’s capsule with large windows for extensive views of Earth from space.
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