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News about Amozon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, At 9 o’clock in the evening on July 20, the Blue Origin No. 1 launch pad deep in the desert of West Texas, the world’s richest man worth more than 200 billion US, 57-year-old Amazon dollars founder Jeff Bezos Take the spacecraft carried by Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and successfully cross the Carmen Line (the boundary line between space and the atmosphere) 100 kilometers high into space. After staying in a weightless environment for about 3 minutes, it returns to Earth and successfully completes the softening process. Landing, this launch is also the 16th flight of the New Shepard rocket.
At around 9:12 p.m, the new Shepard ignited and lifted off.
About 3 minutes later, the New Shepard capsule separated from the thrusters, and the capsule continued to the edge of space. At this time, Bezos and the other three passengers in the cabin should be in a state of weightlessness. Floating in the cabin, looking at Earth from space and experiencing the “holistic effect”. Cheers came from the cabin: “Happy ~ Happy ~ Happy!”
At 9:20 p.m, the New Shepard thrusters gently landed vertically on the launch pad.
After 1 minute, the parachute of the capsule opened and landed in the desert. There, the Blue Origin team has been waiting for the four to “go home”.
While waiting for the hatch to open, Jeff Bezos would often give a thumbs up to the large window. At about 9:30 p.m, the hatch opened. Jeff Bezos hugged everyone and took the lead through the cabin door. Then came Oliver Damon, then Wally Fink, and finally Mark Bezos.
The four members of the flight crew: Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, 18-year-old Oliver Dayman, and 82-year-old Wally Fink (from left to right).
On July 5, after stepping down as CEO of Amazon, Bezos was still the CEO of Blue Origin. The astronauts who went to space with Bezos also included Bezos’s brother Mark Bay. Mark Bezos, 82-year-old female pilot Wally Funk (Wally Funk) and 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daeman (Oliver Daeman); the latter two created the most historical flight in this flight. New records for the oldest and youngest astronaut. During the flight, the flight crew will experience an overload of about 3G. As a pioneer of commercial space tourism, Bezos’s space tour not only set a new record for the age of astronauts but also has the meaning of the “Wright Brothers” in the era of civil space flight.
The interior view of the space capsule is carried by the New Shepard rocket. The space capsule is full of 6 people. This is the first human flight of the system, which only carried 4 people.
Judging from the layout of the windows, the blue origin space capsule seems to correspond to one window per person, and the flight experience should be better than that of Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship II.
Unlike the 70-year-old Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, who flew to the edge of space 9 days earlier than Bezos, the highest flight altitude of the spacecraft carried by Blue Origin this time is more than 100 kilometers, which is much higher than that of cloth. Lanson took the spacecraft two to create an altitude of 86 kilometers.
However, because countries/organizations have different definitions of space boundaries, the space boundary defined by the US Air Force and NASA is more than 50 miles (80 kilometers), while the Carmen line identified by the International Aviation Federation is 62 miles (100 kilometers). Therefore, according to American standards, Branson is still the founder of the first commercial aerospace company to go to space, but Bezos is the first commercial aerospace company to cross the Carmen line.
This flight briefing.
Fly into space on the anniversary of the moon landing
It is worth mentioning that today is also the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. On July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon’s surface in the “Eagle” lunar module, and the Apollo landing on the moon was very difficult for the young shellfish at the time. Soth had a great influence and began to pursue his lifelong dream of space.
Bezos’ grandfather once worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In the era of space competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, he was influenced by many aerospace topics since his childhood; especially in 1969, he was only 5 years old.
The whole process of Apollo 11 landing on the moon has since developed a strong interest in space. Later in high school, Bezos was invited by NASA to visit with a paper on the impact of low-gravity environments on flies. In college days, Bezos came into contact with the physicist and space dreamer Jared O’Neill at the time at Princeton University where Bezos was studying and served as the chairman of the school club “Student Union for Universe Exploration and Development” (SEDS). Later, he founded Amazon , Bezos personally stated that he founded Amazon to make money, and later founded his own space company Blue Origin.
The ultimate goal is to make the dream of space in his youth become a reality. This idea is similar to that of horses. The creation of SpaceX by Sker is like a withdrawal.
Blue Origin does not only travel to the edge of space at an altitude of about 100 kilometers but also participates in the “Artemis” project of NASA’s manned moon landing program in 2020, the “New Glen Rocket” developed by it and SpaceX’s starship/overweight The Falcon has the same capacity. Although the current progress is behind, it still hopes to send humans back to the moon in 2024; in addition, Blue Origin is also developing a lunar lander.
Media meeting before the flight crew launch.
Records for the youngest and oldest astronauts were both broken
The oldest astronaut who has ever been in space before is John Glenn. He has set two records: the first American astronaut to orbit the earth and the oldest astronaut in human history. On February 20, 1962, Glenn got into the Friendship 7 capsule in the Atlas rocket, circled low-Earth orbit 3 times, flew for 4 hours and 55 minutes, and became the first American to orbit the earth in space. On October 29, 1998, 77-year-old Glen returned to space on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He stayed for 9 days and became the oldest astronaut in history.
The youngest astronaut before that was Gorman Stepanovich Titov of the former Soviet Union. On August 6, 1961, Gorman Titov took off on the Vostok-2 spacecraft and became human history. The second astronaut to orbit the earth. Titov was only 26 years old when he launched, and is today the youngest astronaut before Blue Origin launches. He was also the first astronaut to suffer from space dizziness and the first terrestrial person in the world to vomit in space.
Oliver Daeman, an 18-year-old physics student who went to space with Bezos this time, is from the Netherlands. The space travel expenses were paid by his father, Joes Daemen, CEO of Somerset Capital, and he also paid Oliver’s ticket to participate in another Blue Origin space flight.
Space flight is Oliver’s lifelong dream. He has been fascinated by space, the moon and rockets since he was four years old. Oliver graduated from high school in 2020 and then spent a year learning to fly. In September this year, Oliver will go to the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management. Prior to this, another anonymous bid winner paid 28 million U.S. dollars, but due to a conflict in the itinerary, he planned to take another flight in the future, so the first flight sequence was replaced by Oliver Dayman.
The 82-year-old Wally Funk participated in the training of NASA’s Mercury 13 space program in 1961 and ranked among the top of the 13 female astronauts who participated in the training, but later this One project was canceled. In 1983, Sally Ride, the first female astronaut in the United States, entered space. That year, Fink was 44 years old. She has never given up flying and maintained her desire for space. She contacted NASA four times hoping to become an astronaut but was turned away because she didn’t have an engineering degree.
After 60 years, she was finally able to realize her dream. Bezos posted on social media: “No one has waited longer, it’s time. Welcome to join us, Wally.” At 82 years old, she eventually became the oldest person on Earth to fly to space. Blue Origin stated that she and the other crew members — including Bezos and his brother — complied with all Blue Origin’s requirements for this mission.
Sketch of the flight process.
Rocket system and spacecraft
The name of the new Shepard rocket comes from the American astronaut Alan Shepard. He has performed the Mercury-Redstone 3 and Apollo 14 missions. He was the first American astronaut to enter space and the fifth. The man on the moon.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is completely reusable. It is a vertical take-off and landing (VTVL) transportation system. It consists of two main parts: a pressurized manned space capsule and a rocket. The rocket uses a BE-3 engine. The combustion is liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The rocket can be fully controlled automatically by the onboard computer and cannot be operated in the space capsule. The pressurized manned space capsule can carry 6 people when it is fully loaded and is equipped with a launch escape system, which can be separated at any place during the ascent. The internal volume of the space capsule is approximately 15 cubic meters.
The new Shepard rocket flew for the first time on April 29, 2015. The rocket is about 18 meters high and has only one rocket stage. As of today, the New Shepard rocket has flown 16 times, only the second flight partially failed. That flight caused the rocket to fail to land when it returned to the landing site, but the space capsule successfully opened three parachutes and made a perfect soft landing.
The Bezos brothers. (Left is Jeff Bezos, right is Mark Bezos)
“The Wright Brothers” in the 21st Century
Bezos has been very interested in space travel since he was a child, and as his age grows and wealth accumulates, these wishes have gradually become a tangible reality. He once said: “I want to take part in this flight because this is something I want to do all my life.” On Sunday, the Bezos brothers and two other members completed the crash training course before the launch for today. To prepare for the first manned voyage, training items include safety briefings, flight simulations, review of rockets and their operations, instructions for the spacecraft to float in the cabin after being free from the earth’s gravity.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers of the United States drove the self-developed Pilot One aircraft and successfully carried out the first continuous and controlled power flight of an aircraft heavier than air in human history. It is widely hailed as the inventor of modern aircraft. Although the Wright brothers were not the first to conduct aircraft flight tests, they pioneered a flight control system that allowed fixed-wing aircraft to fly in a controlled manner, thus laying the foundation for the practical use of aircraft. Today, a hundred years later, 57-year-old Jeff Bezos went to space with his younger brother Mark Bezos and became the pioneers of human commercial space travel.
Follow-up missions and outlook for space tourism
After the NS-16 mission has completed its scheduled flight, Blue Origin plans to conduct another two manned flights this year, and the next one is expected to be at the end of September or early October. Blue Origin Aerospace Sales Director Ariane Cornell (Ariane Cornell) previously said: Since the auction was held on June 12, she is very happy to be able to negotiate with many future customers who have signed follow-up flights.
Customers participating in the auction A premium was paid, and the willingness to pay remains high. The first few space flights of Blue Origin are very expensive, and she has seen more and more public interest in space travel. The June auction attracted more than 6000 people from at least 143 countries.
The ticket price for the first manned test flight of Blue Origin was auctioned to 28 million U.S. dollars (the initial ticket price is 200,000 U.S. dollars), and the “dragon” spacecraft of SpaceX Each ticket is about 55 million U.S. dollars; the ticket price for Virgin Galactic Spacecraft II is 250,000 U.S. dollars.
These three can reach different orbital heights. The Dragon spacecraft can send the spacecraft to the same low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers high as the International Space Station and can experience weightlessness for a long time, and the blue origin and the new Shepard of Virgin Galactic The Rocket and Spaceship No. 2 aircraft can only reach the edge of space about 100 kilometers, and experience weightlessness for about 3-4 minutes.
According to UBS estimates in 2020, 2030, space tourism can generate nearly US$4 billion in annual revenue. At present, the commercial space travel market is immature and the economic prospects are broad. Billionaires have entered the game to compete for the first person in commercial space travel.
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