Context: First Indian ventured into space as a tourist on board Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos’s rocket company Blue Origin. The New Shepard rocket and capsule lifted off from Blue Origin’s facilities. NS-25, Blue Origin’s seventh crewed flight to date, carried six customers.
About Blue Origin
- The company was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
- Blue Origin is an American aerospace manufacturer, defence contractor, launch service provider and space technologies company headquartered in Washington, United States.
- In 2021, New Shepard performed its first crewed mission to sub-orbital space called Blue Origin NS-16. The flight lasted approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Karman line.
New Shepard
- New Shepard is a suborbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism.
- The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space.
- The vehicle is capable of vertical take-off and landings and can carry humans and customer payloads to the edge of space.
- It is a rocket that consists of a booster rocket and a crew capsule. The capsule can be configured to house up to six passengers, cargo, or a combination of both.
- The booster rocket is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which sends the capsule to an apogee (Sub-Orbital) of 100.5 kilometres and flies above the Karman line.
- The launch vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, with the capsule returning to Earth via three parachutes and a solid rocket motor. The booster lands vertically on the same launchpad it took off from.
- The launch vehicle has a length of 15.0 metres, a diameter of 3.7 metres (12 ft) and a launch mass of 75 short tons.
- New Shepard allows the company to significantly reduce the cost of space tourism, making the experience more accessible to the general public.