07/20/2021 7:01 AM
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 07/20/2021 7:01 AM
Jeff Bezos
- the richest person in the world - joins the billionaire astronaut club on Tuesday in the
first crewed launch of the Blue Origin company
, another key moment in a historic month for the fledgling space tourism industry.
The mission comes days after Virgin Galactic founder
Richard Branson
crossed - or not - the planet's final frontier, narrowly beating the Amazon mogul in the space duel between the two billionaires.
However, Blue Origin's sights are aimed higher: literally in terms of how
high its reusable New Shepard spacecraft will ascend
, compared to Virgin's space plane, but also in its future ambitions.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, with the goal of one day building floating space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will live and work.
The New Shepard crew (left to right): Oliver Daemenen, Wally Funk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Bezos.
Photo: Instagram
His journey to more than 100 kilometers from the ground will take place just two weeks after leaving the position of CEO of Amazon, a group of which he holds about 10% of the shares.
In his feat of space,
Bezos will be accompanied by his brother Mark
, a financier who runs the Bezos Family Foundation and works as a volunteer firefighter, but the highlight will be
ex-pilot Wally Funk
, who at 82 will become, with this journey, the oldest astronaut in history.
The other lucky person for this spacewalk will be
Oliver Daemenen
, who will become the youngest space traveler in history, at 18 years old.
The young Dutchman is the firm's first paid client.
Notably absent is the mysterious winner of a $ 28 million auction for a seat, who had a "scheduling problem" and will participate in a future flight, and has asked to remain anonymous, the company said.
The New Shepard ship, during the last tests.
Photo: AFP
New Shepard will take off at 8
a.m.
(
10 a.m. Argentine time
) from a remote facility in the West Texas desert called
Launch Site One
, about 25 miles north of Van Horn, the nearest city.
After takeoff, New Shepard will
accelerate into space at speeds in excess of Mach 3
, using a carbon-free liquid hydrogen / liquid oxygen engine.
The crossing would last 11 minutes.
The event is broadcast live on BlueOrigin.com.
Dispute with Virgin Galactic
On the other hand, Blue Origin also claims that its rocket is more environmentally friendly than that of its Virgin Galactic rival.
Today, the company is developing a heavy-lift orbital rocket called New Glenn and also a lunar lander that it hopes to be
able to negotiate with NASA under the Artemis program
.
"They have had 15 successful unmanned flights in New Shepherd and we have been waiting years to see when they will start bringing people," said
Laura Forczyk
, founder of the space consultancy Astralytical, who called the trip "an exciting time" for the space enthusiasts.
The spacecraft takes off at a remote facility in the West Texas desert called Launch Site One. Photo: Reuters
The ambitions of Bezos' modern company do not stop at space tourism, as it now hopes to become a
major subcontractor for NASA missions.
All of this stems from a company like Amazon that in 27 years
went from being a garage-mounted startup to a growing corporation valued at $ 1.8 trillion in the stock market
.
Currently, billionaire Elon Musk's firm SpaceX is the main private sector partner for the US space agency, which includes transporting several astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) since 2020.
With information from agencies.
SL
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