Mission type | Crewed sub-orbital spaceflight |
---|---|
Mission duration | 10 minutes, 5 seconds |
Apogee | 107 km (66 mi) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | RSS First Step |
Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
Crew | |
Crew size | 6 |
Members |
|
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 4 June 2022 13:25:02 UTC [1] |
Rocket | New Shepard (NS4) |
Launch site | Corn Ranch, LS-1 |
Contractor | Blue Origin |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 4 June 2022 13:35:07 UTC [1] |
Landing site | Corn Ranch |
Blue Origin NS-21 mission patch |
Blue Origin NS-21 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 4 June 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. [2] It was Blue Origin's fifth crewed flight, and twenty-first overall to reach space. [3]
The mission was originally scheduled to launch on 20 May 2022. However, the flight was delayed due to a back-up system not meeting the "expectations for performance," [4] and the new 4 June launch date was announced on 31 May 2022. [5]
Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke was a guest of Blue Origin attending the launch.
The NS-21 crew was nicknamed the "Crew of Natural Selection". [6]
The crew of six included Evan Dick, who previously flew on Blue Origin NS-19, making him the first person to fly on New Shepard twice. Also on board were Katya Echazarreta, who became the first Mexican-born woman and youngest American woman to fly to space, and Victor Vescovo, a notable undersea explorer. [7] The flight made Vescovo the first person to complete the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta, which requires travelling to the bottom of the Challenger Deep and the summit of Mount Everest and flying to space. [8]
Echazarreta's seat was sponsored by the Space For Humanity initiative, and paid for by Blue Origin and NS-19 passengers Lane and Cameron Bess. She is a post-graduate student at Johns Hopkins University who has done work on the Mars 2020 and Europa Clipper missions. [9]
Victor Correa Hespanha was the second Brazilian in space. He was selected to fly after buying an NFT for R$4,000 (US$ 742.12) from the Crypto Space Agency, which entered him into a raffle for the trip. [10] [11] He has been called the “world’s first cryptonaut.” [12]
Position | Crew | |
---|---|---|
Tourist | Evan Dick Second spaceflight | |
Tourist | / Katya Echazarreta First spaceflight | |
Tourist | Hamish Harding Only spaceflight | |
Tourist | Victor Correa Hespanha First spaceflight | |
Tourist | Jaison Robinson First spaceflight | |
Tourist | Victor Vescovo First spaceflight |
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism.
Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.
Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P., commonly referred to as Blue Origin is an American aerospace manufacturer, defense contractor, launch service provider and space technologies company headquartered in Kent, Washington, United States. The company makes rocket engines for United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s Vulcan rocket and manufactures their own rockets, spacecraft, satellites, and heavy-lift launch vehicles. The company is the second provider of lunar lander services for NASA's Artemis program and was awarded a $3.4 billion contract. The company has four rocket engines in production including the BE-3U, BE-3PM, BE-4 and the BE-7.
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American to travel into space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Additionally, it is also capable of carrying humans and customer payloads into a sub-orbital trajectory.
The following is a timeline of important events in the history of private spaceflight, including important technical as well as legislative and political advances. Though the industry has its origins in the early 1960s, soon after the beginning of the Space Age, private companies did not begin conducting launches into space until the 1980s, and it was not until the 21st century that multiple companies began privately developing and operating launch vehicles and spacecraft in earnest.
The billionaire space race is the rivalry among entrepreneurs who have entered the space industry from other industries - particularly computing. This private spaceflight race involves sending privately developed rockets and vehicles to various destinations in space, often in response to government programs or to develop the space tourism sector.
This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2021. 2021 saw several spaceflight related records being set worldwide. This includes both the most orbital launch attempts and most successful orbital launches in a year. In addition, 2021 saw records set in the number of humans in orbit at one time and the most humans in space at one time.
SpaceX Crew-1 was the first operational crewed flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft. It was also the second crewed orbital flight launch by the United States since that of STS-135 in July 2011. Resilience launched on 16 November 2020 at 00:27:17 UTC on a Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, all members of the Expedition 64 crew. The mission was the second overall crewed orbital flight of the Crew Dragon.
Blue Origin NS-16 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin which flew on 20 July 2021. The mission was the sixteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft, and its first crewed flight. It carried into space American billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, pilot and Mercury 13 member Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen. The flight commenced from Blue Origin's Corn Ranch sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the third flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step, both having previously flown on NS-14 and NS-15 earlier in the year.
Oliver Daemen is a Dutch space tourist who flew as part of the 20 July 2021, sub-orbital Blue Origin NS-16 spaceflight. At the time of his flight he was 18 years old, and became the youngest person, first teenager, and first person born in the 21st century to travel to space using the United States definition of the boundary of space. Daemen is a licensed pilot.
RSS First Step is a New Shepard space capsule, built and operated by American spaceflight company Blue Origin. It is the third New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and the first to fly passengers. Its first flight was the NS-14 mission, which reached an altitude of 107 km (66 mi) on 14 January 2021.
Blue Origin NS-18 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin that launched on 13 October 2021. The mission was the eighteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft. It was the second crewed New Shepard launch. The flight, carrying four people including actor William Shatner, launched from Blue Origin's sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the fourth flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step, both having previously flown on NS-14, NS-15, and NS-16 earlier in the year.
Blue Origin NS-19 was a crewed New Shepard sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin that launched on 11 December 2021. The flight was scheduled to launch on 9 December 2021, later delayed to 11 December 2021.
Blue Origin NS-20 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 31 March 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. With six people on board, it was Blue Origin's fourth crewed flight, and twentieth flight overall to reach space.
Katya Celeste Echazarreta González is a Mexican electrical engineer, science communicator, and Citizen Astronaut. She became the first Mexican-born woman in space as part of Space for Humanity's Citizen Astronaut Program, launched June 4, 2022.
Blue Origin NS-22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 4 August 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. It was Blue Origin's sixth crewed flight and the twenty-second overall to go into space.
Gary Lai is an American aerospace engineer. He was the chief architect for New Shepard, a vehicle developed by aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin for space tourism. On March 31, 2022, he flew on New Shepard's 20th mission to space, NS-20. He is a Co-Founder and the Chief Technology Officer of a company called Interlune.
Blue Origin NS-17 was an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight mission of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, which launched on 26 August 2021. It was New Shepards 4th flight in 2021. It was also Blue Origin's 17th overall flight to go into space.
Blue Origin NS-15 was an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight mission of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, which launched on 14 April 2021. It was New Shepards 2nd flight in 2021 and Blue Origin's 15th overall flight to go into space.