By Katanga Johnson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Space tourism company Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, completed its fifth manned launch on Saturday after a failed New Shepard rocket backup system delayed the trip last month.
Blue Origin’s fourth flight successfully landed in West Texas in March after taking six passengers on a 10-minute journey into space.
“It was an honor to fly this special crew of explorers and true pioneers,” said Phil Joyce, senior vice president of New Shepard.
“Each mission is an opportunity to give six more people a life-changing experience, witnessing the beauty and fragility of our planet from space.”
The company’s suborbital flight lasts about 10 minutes, from launch to landing, and reaches an altitude of about 106 kilometers, giving passengers a few gravity-free moments before returning to Earth in a parachute landing.
Companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson, are making space tourism a reality.
So far, Axiom, SpaceX and Nasa have called these missions a hallmark of expanding privately-funded space trade, what industry insiders call the “low Earth orbit economy” or “LEO economy.”
The International Space Station has welcomed a number of wealthy tourists in recent years.
#Blue #Origin #Jeff #Bezos #completes #5th #manned #flight #launch #ISTOÉ #DINHEIRO