In this image from a video made available by Blue Origin, the company’s New Shepard rocket lands after a test flight in West Texas on Thursday, January 14, 2021. (Blue Origin via AP)
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company on Thursday launched a new capsule in space to test all the space benefits before humans join.
Thursday’s flight with a dummy named Mannequin Skywalker lasted ten minutes and reached 106 miles above West Texas. Both the New Shepard rocket and the capsule landed successfully.
It was the 14th flight to the edge of space for a New Shepard rocket. The first was in 2015.
“The success of this flight puts us a very big step closer to flying astronauts,” said Ariane Cornell, launch commentator at headquarters in Kent, Washington. “There’s going to be a lot of fun in 2021.”
Blue Origin plans to launch paying passengers – tourists, scientists and professional astronauts – in a short leap across West Texas’ remote desert. It is also working on a larger rocket, New Glenn, which will blow off Cape Canaveral, as well as a lunar lander for astronauts under NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
The capsule that soared into the air on Thursday featured the latest upgrades from the crew: microphones and push-to-talk buttons for the six seats, wall panels to muffle engine noise, a safety warning system and temperature and humidity controls to to keep passengers comfortable and the large windows free of fog.
In this image from the video made available by Blue Origin, the company’s RSS First Step capsule uses parachutes for landing after a test flight in West Texas on Thursday, January 14, 2021. (Blue Origin via AP)
The launch and landing team were reduced due to the pandemic.
New Shepard is named after the first American in space, Alan Shephard. New Glenn honors John Glenn, the first American in orbit.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches spacecraft higher than ever before
© 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Quotation: Blue Origin launches space capsule with space benefits (2021, January 14) Retrieved January 15, 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-01-blue-capsule-space-astronaut-perks.html
This document is subject to copyright. Except for any fair trade for the purpose of private study or research, no portion may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.