Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP) – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company launched a new capsule into space Thursday to test all the astronauts before humans enter.
An obstacle flight called Mannequin Skywalker lasted Thursday 10 minutes and reached 66 miles (106 kilometers) above West Texas. Both the New Shepard rocket and the capsule were successful.
It was the 14th flight to the edge of space for the New Shepard rocket. The first was in 2015.
“The success of this flight takes us one step closer to flying astronauts,” said start-up reporter Ariane Cornell from the company’s headquarters in Kent, Washington. “We’ll have lots of fun in 2021.”
Blue Origin plans to launch paying travelers – tourists, scientists and professional astronauts – on a short hop over the remote West Texas desert. They are also working on a larger rocket, New Glenn, that would explode out of Cape Canaveral as well as a lunar landing for astronauts under NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
In the capsule that rose above Thursday were the latest team updates: microphones and push-to-speak buttons for all six seats, wall panels to mute engine noise, a safety warning system, and temperature controls and humidity to keep passengers comfortable and the large windows free. of fog.
The launch and landing team was postponed due to the pandemic.
New Shepard is named for the first American in space, Alan Shephard. New Glenn pays homage to John Glenn, the first American in orbit.
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