Blue Origin flew its newest group of six thrill seekers to the edge of space and back on Thursday, including the youngest woman ever to accomplish the feat.
For the company founded by Jeff Bezos, the NS-26 mission was the eighth manned space flight with which the company is driving the emerging market of suborbital tourism.
Karsen Kitchen, a 21-year-old senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the youngest woman to ever cross the Kárman Line, an internationally recognized boundary that marks the edge of space 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
Blue Origin’s small New Shepard rocket launched at 8:00 a.m. local time (13:00 GMT) from the company’s Launch Pad One in West Texas.
After launch, the elegant and spacious capsule separated from its CO2-free launch vehicle before the rocket performed a precise vertical landing.
As the spacecraft left the Karman line, passengers were able to marvel at the curvature of the Earth, unbuckle their seatbelts, and float in zero gravity for a few minutes.
“Being there in the darkness of space … it’s indescribably awe-inspiring,” said Rob Ferl, a NASA-funded researcher who conducted an experiment during the flight.
The capsule then re-entered the atmosphere and opened its parachutes for a desert landing near the launch site. Total flight time is usually about 10 to 11 minutes.
Blue Origin does not publicly disclose the cost of its tickets, but prices are believed to vary considerably depending on the person selected, their net worth and the social capital they bring to the company.
The first seat sold at a 2021 charity auction fetched $28 million, but notable guests like Star Trek actor William Shatner have flown on Blue Origin flights for free. Others have reported paying several hundred thousand dollars.
Blue Origin’s main competitor in the suborbital space market, Virgin Galactic, is currently pausing its commercial operations for two years as it modernizes its fleet.
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