Blue Origin, a private aerospace company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has announced that it will once again carry humans to and from the edge of space with its New Shepard suborbital vehicle - this is happening after a nearly two-year hiatus.
This is New Shepard's first flight with humans on board since the accident in August 2022, when one of the engines caught fire during landing. Fortunately, none of the crew members were injured.
After the incident, the company conducted an investigation and improved the ship's systems before resuming commercial flights. Let's recall that a few months before the accident, Blue Origin began regular tourist flights in space with New Shepard.
Passengers were given the opportunity to spend about 10 minutes in a state of weightlessness and admire the views of the Earth from a height of 100 km - according to the international classification, this height passes the border of space.
The crew consisted of six people, and the price of the ticket reached hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to suborbital space tourism, Blue Origin is developing a heavy-duty, reusable New Glenn rocket to launch payloads into orbit.
Bezos' company is also involved in NASA's program to return astronauts to the moon. Blue Origin competes in the field of reusable rocket and space systems with Elon Musk's SpaceX.