WATCH: Bezos in first human flight mission to space
The world’s richest man is ushering in a new era of space tourism.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is today (July 20) taking a great stride for mankind. He and a civilian crew are set to blast into space aboard his company Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard launch vehicle.
Accompanying Bezos are his brother, Mark, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen. If successful, this will go down in history as the first unpiloted suborbital flight with a civilian crew and will be a triumph for Blue Origin, which says it is ‘committed to building a road to space so our children can build the future’.
Daemen will be the first paying customer to fly on board New Shepard, thus beginning commercial operations for this programme. He is just 18 years old, while Funk is 82, making the pair the youngest and oldest people to travel to space, reports Blue Origin.
Our astronauts have completed training and are a go for launch. #NSFirstHumanFlight pic.twitter.com/rzkQgqVaB6
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 19, 2021
“This marks the beginning of commercial operations for New Shepard, and Oliver represents a new generation of people who will help us build a road to space,” says Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith.
According to Blue Origin, Daemen is fulfilling a lifelong dream of travelling to space; he has been fascinated by the moon, rockets and space since he was four years old.
Watch the launch live at 15:00 South African time:
