Image: The NS-20 crew, from left to right: Gary Lai, George Nield, Jim
Kitchen, Marty Allen, Sharon Hagle, and Marc Hagle. - Blue Origin
Once again the ZS-Link live streamed audio of the launch of a space mission. The NS-20 mission also marked Blue Origin’s 20th passenger launched
to space with New Shepard since the rocket’s first crewed mission
last summer. This New Shepard mission carried a crew of six –
former Party America CEO Marty Allen; real estate development firm
Tricor International CEO Marc Hagle and his wife Sharon; University
of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen; former FAA commercial space
office leader Dr. George Nield; and Gary Lai, the chief architect of
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
The rocket launched from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas, and soared above 100 kilometers — or more than 340,000 feet — before returning to Earth safely a few minutes later. From start to finish, the mission lasted about 10 minutes, with the crew experiencing about two minutes of weightlessness.
New Shepard’s capsule accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound to pass beyond the 80-kilometer boundary, or about 50 miles, that the U.S. uses to mark the edge of space. The capsule is flown autonomously, with no human pilot, and floats down with the assistance of a set of parachutes to land in the Texas desert.
The New Shepard rocket booster is reusable, and returned to successfully land on a concrete pad near the launch site.
Images: Blue Origin (Click on images for larger view.)
