Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches 6 passengers on sub-orbital trip to space and back

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches 6 passengers on sub-orbital trip to space and back

August 29, 2024 Benjamin Hughes

Blue Origin launched six passengers, including a NASA-sponsored researcher and the youngest woman to fly in space, on a sub-orbital trip out of the lower atmosphere Thursday in the company’s eighth crewed spaceflight.

University of Florida researcher Rob Ferl, philanthropist Nicolina Elrick, adventurer Eugene Grin, Vanderbilt University cardiologist Elman Jahangir, American-Israeli entrepreneur Ephraim Rabin and University of North Carolina senior Karsen Kitchen blasted off from Jeff Bezos’ west Texas launch site at 9:07 a.m. EDT.

A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket blasts off from west Texas Thursday, boosting six passengers out of the lower atmosphere for an up-and-down sub-orbital trip to space. It was the company’s eighth crewed New Shepard flight.

Blue Origin

Powered by a single-stage, hydrogen-fueled rocket, the New Shepard crew capsule was propelled straight up and through a deck of clouds, disappearing from view as it was boosted to a maximum velocity of 2,238 mph before the launcher’s BE-3 engine shut down.

William Harwood

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

Source: cbsnews.com