{"id":17483,"date":"2021-09-27T21:05:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T13:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-sets-next-space-trip-for-oct-12-two-fliers-named-but-not-william-shatner\/"},"modified":"2021-09-27T21:05:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T13:05:47","slug":"blue-origin-sets-next-space-trip-for-oct-12-two-fliers-named-but-not-william-shatner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-sets-next-space-trip-for-oct-12-two-fliers-named-but-not-william-shatner\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin sets next space trip for Oct. 12; two fliers named, but not William Shatner"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_632287\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-632287\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-632287\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"New Shepard and crew\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/newshepard.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-632287\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s first suborbital space crew does a photo op in front of the New Shepard rocket booster that lifted them skyward in July. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says two successful tech entrepreneurs will be part of the lineup for its next suborbital trip on Oct. 12 \u2014 but for now, it\u2019s keeping mum on reports that Star Trek captain William Shatner will also fly.<\/p>\n<p>The first two people on the flight manifest are Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries, the co-founder of Medidata Solutions. De Vries is now the vice chair of life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Syst\u00e8mes, which acquired Medidata, the world\u2019s most used clinical research platform, in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin said they\u2019ll be joined by two other fliers whose names will be announced \u201cin the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company didn\u2019t disclose how much any of the customers will be paying for their trips \u2014 and didn\u2019t address last week\u2019s report by the TMZ celebrity news outlet that the fliers would include Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d series and in a string of movies that followed.<\/p>\n<p>Next month\u2019s suborbital launch from Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas spaceport would follow up on the company\u2019s first crewed spaceflight in July. The riders for that flight included Bezos himself, as well as his brother, Mark; aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who at the age of 82 became the world\u2019s oldest person to go into space; and Dutch student Oliver Daemen, who became the world\u2019s youngest spaceflier at 18.<\/p>\n<p>If Shatner flies next month at the age of 90, he would set a new record as the oldest person to fly in space.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"William Shatner to go into space in Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket ship | ABC7\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VYKtTsRz2dA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The next flight would trace the same trajectory as Blue Origin\u2019s 17 previous launches (which include uncrewed flights). The New Shepard spaceship would blast off to send its fliers beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) mark, giving them a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the curving Earth beneath the black sky of space. The parachute-equipped crew capsule would then float back down to the West Texas desert while the booster makes an autonomous touchdown on a landing pad.<\/p>\n<p>The whole trip would take about 10 minutes. That\u2019s much shorter than the three-day orbital trip that the Inspiration4 mission\u2019s four-person crew took this month in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s news release, Boshuizen and de Vries said they were thrilled to go on a suborbital space journey.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a fulfillment of my greatest childhood dream,\u201d Boshuizen said. \u201cMore importantly, though, I see this flight as an opportunity to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM and catalyze the next generation of space explorers. After all, our future of life in space is in their very capable hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boshuizen co-founded Planet in 2010 and served as its chief technology officer for five years. The company now operates three constellations comprising more than 150 Earth observation satellites in low Earth orbit. He has also served as a space mission architect at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center, where he co-invented the NASA Phonesat, and played leading roles at Singularity University and the Space Generation Advisory Council.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Age, Boshuizen played up the fact that he was born in Australia and has never taken up U.S. citizenship. \u201cI\u2019ve been stubborn about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still on a work visa here in the U.S. after 14 years.\u201d Other Australian natives have become U.S. citizens and NASA astronauts, but Boshuizen told The Age that he\u2019d be \u201cthe first <em>Aussie<\/em> Aussie going up.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_645122\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-645122\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-645122\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin-630x393.jpg\" alt=\"Boshuizen and de Vries\" width=\"630\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin-630x393.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin-1260x785.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin-768x479.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin-1536x958.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/210927-blueorigin.jpg 1872w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-645122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin says Chris Boshuizen (left) and Glen de Vries (right) will be among the spacefliers taking a suborbital trip in October. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In addition to his roles as a Medidata co-founder and Dassault executive, de Vries is a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, the author of a book about precision medicine titled \u201cThe Patient Equation,\u201d and an instrument-rated private pilot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire career working to extend people\u2019s lives. However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive. Furthermore, astronauts can experience the \u2018overview effect,\u2019 gaining a new perspective on how fragile and precious our planet, those resources and our civilization are,\u201d de Vries said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlaying a part in advancing the space industry, and one day making those resources and that understanding available to everyone, is an incredible opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s announcement is the latest sign that Blue Origin is ramping up its suborbital space travel operation. Just after July\u2019s milestone mission, Bezos announced that the Kent, Wash.-based company has racked up nearly $100 million in private sales for future flights \u2014 and accordingly, he\u2019s increasing the amount of time and attention he\u2019s devoting to the space venture he founded more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>In an email, Blue Origin spokesperson Sara Blask told GeekWire that Boshuizen and de Vries both took part in an auction that was conducted for one of the seats on July\u2019s flight. The winner of that auction bid $28 million, but decided to pass up on the first flight. That opened up a seat for Daemen, who is the son of a Dutch investment firm\u2019s CEO and also put in a bid.<\/p>\n<p>The high bidder hasn\u2019t been identified, but Blask said Blue Origin \u201cwill be announcing details on the auction winner soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like July\u2019s flight, next month\u2019s mission will be live-streamed via Blue Origin\u2019s website, with liftoff tentatively set for 8:30 a.m. CT (6:30 a.m. PT) Oct. 12. And following up on past precedent, Blue Origin will pack thousands of postcards in the crew capsule for the \u201cPostcards to Space\u201d STEM program that\u2019s offered by the Club for the Future, the company\u2019s educational nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s first suborbital space crew does a photo op in front of the New Shepard rocket booster that lifted them skyward in July. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says two successful tech entrepreneurs will be part of the lineup for its next suborbital trip on Oct. 12 \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,4714,4715,1250,493,4402,4438],"class_list":["post-17483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-chris-boshuizen","tag-glen-de-vries","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-suborbital-spaceflight","tag-william-shatner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}