Blue Origin launches new Shepard space capsule

With a lot of attention being centered around Elon Musk and Space X; there is another group of rocket and space travel pioneers doing some great science!

Billionaire Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin are making some amazing progress in bringing space travel to the public.

Blue Origin launched another rocket platform this past week, from its west Texas launch facility.

Blue Origin launched the highest test flight ever and returned the payload capsule safely back to Earth. The other part of the mission, soft landed the main booster rocket back to
the launch pad.

Atop the Blue Origin rocket, was the passenger spaceship, New Shepard, which was filled with a dummy astronaut; named “Mannequin Skywalker.”

One of the goals of the New Shepard capsule is to launch paying clients into the region of space which is known by many as the Karman Line; a region in the upper atmosphere which represents the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

To become an official astronaut, one must reach this region; 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, or 330,000 feet above sea level.

With regard to the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, this is a region between the Mesosphere and the Thermosphere.

The latest launch sent the rocket and capsule to at least 351,000 feet above the launch complex and returned the booster rocket to a soft landing, some 10 minutes after launch.

The capsule; the New Glenn 2.0, is the latest in a series of craft which will have the ability to launch six passengers on sun orbital flights.

Blue Origin has not yet decided the price which it will charge for this amazing sub-orbital rocket ride, mimicking the flight that the first American astronaut into space; Alan Shepard.

Alan Shepard was launched into space on May 5th 1961 on the famous Mercury capsule known as Freedom 7.

Shepard was not the first human in space; but the first American to fly above the 62-mile high mark, qualifying his as an astronaut. He reached some 116 statute miles above the Earth on that mission.

His mission was not an orbital flight, but rather, a sub-orbital flight.

Blue Origin is also developing a series of more powerful rocket platforms, known as New Glenn, which will be used to place satellites and people in space for future missions exploring the solar system.

The sawn of real space exploration is here and now, with the ascent of these private space
firms.

To print your very own May 2018 star chart.

To view satellites/dates/times of passage.