{"id":17517,"date":"2021-07-21T01:42:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-to-watch-the-countdown-to-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-suborbital-space-trip-and-why\/"},"modified":"2021-07-21T01:42:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:42:09","slug":"how-to-watch-the-countdown-to-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-suborbital-space-trip-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-to-watch-the-countdown-to-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-suborbital-space-trip-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"How to watch the countdown to Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin suborbital space trip (and why)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_468842\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-468842\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-468842\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181217-blue-630x470.jpg\" alt=\"New Shepard ready for launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181217-blue-630x470.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181217-blue-768x573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181217-blue-1260x940.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181217-blue.jpg 1275w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-468842\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship sits on its pad in preparation for a test flight in 2018. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4 class=\"entry-title\">UPDATE: \u2018Best day ever!\u2019 Blue Origin sends Jeff Bezos on suborbital trip with oldest and youngest spacefliers<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Original story:<\/strong> VAN HORN, Texas \u2014 More than two decades after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos created Blue Origin, his privately held space company is finally sending people on a suborbital space trip \u2014 and one of those people is Bezos himself.<\/p>\n<p>How are Bezos and his three crewmates traveling? How can you see how it all turns out? And why the heck is the world\u2019s richest person riding a rocket ship? Here\u2019s a quick guide to this morning\u2019s scheduled launch of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship from Launch Site One, located on 165,000 acres of Bezos-owned ranchland that\u2019s a half-hour drive north of Van Horn in West Texas.<\/p>\n<h4>What to watch for<\/h4>\n<p><iframe title=\"Inside look at the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket booster and crew capsule\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K1H6QwxUTR8?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 New Shepard rocket ship is scheduled to blast off from Launch Site One\u2019s pad at 8 a.m. CT (6 a.m. PT), with Bezos and the rest of the crew sitting back in their seats, looking through the picture windows in their capsule as a hydrogen-fueled rocket booster sends them skyward.<\/p>\n<p>About two and a half minutes after liftoff, the booster will stop firing its engines, and the capsule will separate from the booster to continue past 100 kilometers (62 miles) in altitude. During that phase of the flight, crew members can get out of their seats and float around for three or four minutes. Then they\u2019ll return to their seats for a parachute-aided descent back to the Texas desert.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the booster will make an autonomous landing on a pad located at a safe distance from the capsule\u2019s touchdown zone. After the crew lands, Blue Origin\u2019s recovery team will drive out and help the foursome out of the capsule.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_631912\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-631912\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-631912 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace-630x402.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace-630x402.jpeg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace-1260x805.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace-768x491.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace-1536x981.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/bezosspace.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-631912\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This infographic traces the phases of New Shepard\u2019s flight. Click on the image for a larger version. (Blue Origin Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Where to watch<\/h4>\n<p>Blue Origin is streaming live coverage of the countdown via BlueOrigin.com and YouTube, counting down to the 8 a.m. CT (6 a.m. PT) launch. Last-minute technical glitches or weather concerns could delay liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>Access to the launch site and its surroundings will be extremely limited. The stretch of Texas State Highway 54 leading to Launch Site One from the north and the south will be closed for the launch, so the company advises even nearby residents to watch online. Other streaming services \u2014 including Amazon Prime \u2014 are piggybacking on Blue Origin\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n<p>For updates, watch @blueorigin on Twitter and @jeffbezos on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Replay - New Shepard First Human Flight\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tMHhXzpwupU?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<h4>When to watch<\/h4>\n<p>Liftoff at 8 a.m. CT (6 a.m. PT) is the most important time to tune in, but there are other points on the timeline worth watching for on Blue Origin\u2019s Twitter feed (count backward from launch time for T-minus milestones):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>T-minus-6.5 hours:<\/strong> New Shepard leaves its parking spot in Blue Origin\u2019s \u201cBarn\u201d and heads out to the launch pad.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-2 hours:<\/strong> Bezos and crewmates arrive at Launch Site One.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-90 minutes:<\/strong> Webcast begins.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-45 minutes:<\/strong> Crew leaves training center and heads for launch pad.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-30 minutes:<\/strong> Crew boards capsule.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-24 minutes:<\/strong> Capsule hatch is closed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-minus-10 minutes:<\/strong> Terminal Count Ready Report.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-zero:<\/strong> Ignition, with liftoff coming seconds later.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-plus-8 minutes:<\/strong> Booster lands at Launch Site One.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-plus-11 minutes:<\/strong> Crew capsule makes its touchdown.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-plus-22 minutes:<\/strong> Capsule hatch is opened.<\/li>\n<li><strong>T-plus-2 hours (approximate):<\/strong> Post-landing news conference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Who to watch<\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_632052\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-632052\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-632052\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-630x768.jpg\" alt=\"New Shepard crew portrait\" width=\"630\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-630x768.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-1033x1260.jpg 1033w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-768x937.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-1259x1536.jpg 1259w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/crewportrait-1679x2048.jpg 1679w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-632052\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Shepard\u2019s first crew, from left: Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos (with lucky cowboy boots), Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Jeff Bezos<\/strong> will be the most closely watched crew member. He says he\u2019s been a space geek since watching the Apollo 11 moon landing at the age of 5, and was the head of Princeton\u2019s chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space during his college days. Bezos has joked that he started up Amazon to earn the money he\u2019d need for Blue Origin, and he cashes in about a billion dollars of Amazon stock annually to fund the company. His ultimate dream? Having millions of people living and working in space.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark Bezos<\/strong>, Jeff\u2019s younger brother, is a volunteer firefighter in New York,&nbsp;a co-founder of New York-based HighPost Capital and a member of the leadership council at the&nbsp;Robin Hood Foundation, which was co-founded by his mother and fights poverty in New York. Jeff Bezos asked Mark to be on the flight because he wanted to share \u201cthe greatest adventure, with my best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wally Funk<\/strong> is due to become history\u2019s oldest spaceflier at the age of 82. She was one of the \u201cMercury 13\u201d aviators who were subjected to the same tests as NASA\u2019s Mercury astronauts as part of a research project that some hoped would open the way for women to join NASA\u2019s early astronaut program. Unfortunately for Funk and the 12 others, that didn\u2019t occur until the late 1970s, and none of the 13 was accepted. Funk went on to a distinguished career as a pilot and aviation inspector, and enthusiastically took Jeff Bezos up on his invitation to be a part of Blue Origin\u2019s first space crew.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oliver Daemen<\/strong> is due to become history\u2019s youngest spaceflier at the age of 18. He\u2019s a native of the Netherlands who took a year off after high school graduation to get his private pilot\u2019s license. &nbsp;In September, he\u2019s due to attend the University of Utrecht to study physics and innovation management. His father is Joes Daemen, who\u2019s the CEO of a Dutch investment firm. With Joes\u2019 support, Oliver put in a bid for a New Shepard seat that was auctioned off for charity. His bid wasn\u2019t high enough to win, but he arranged to buy a seat on New Shepard\u2019s second crewed flight. And when the winner of the $28 million auction bowed out, Daemen\u2019s reservation was switched to this week\u2019s flight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other key team members:<\/strong> Kevin Sproge, a former Navy test pilot, serves as chief trainer. Sarah Knights, whose background is in STEM education, is capsule communicator (a.k.a. Capcom). Flight director Steve Lanius has worked on environmental, health and safety issues at Blue Origin since 2004. And rollout flight director Nicholas Patrick is a former NASA astronaut.<\/p>\n<h4>Why watch?<\/h4>\n<p>Suborbital spaceflight is nothing new: After all, New Shepard is named after the first American to ride a rocket into space, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, who took his suborbital trip in 1961. The first privately funded, crewed suborbital spaceflight was done in 2004 by SpaceShipOne, with backing from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Virgin Galactic sent its first crew members to space in 2018 \u2014 and the company\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, made his own space trip last week.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, this flight is a milestone for several reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blue Origin\u2019s first crewed spaceflight.<\/li>\n<li>First time for a commercial company to launch a privately funded and built spacecraft from a private launch range with people on board.<\/li>\n<li>Oldest and youngest humans to fly in space (Funk and Daemen).<\/li>\n<li>First passenger to pay a fare for a suborbital spaceflight (Daemen).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Blue Origin is already lining up more suborbital space passengers, with the next flight due to launch as soon as September. In the months ahead, there\u2019s likely to be a big reality check in the market for space tourism and human-tended space research \u2014 with Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX all vying for a share.<\/p>\n<p>But Bezos prefers to take the long view. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a competition,\u201d he said during an NBC interview. \u201cThis is about building a road to space so that future generations can do incredible things in space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This report was originally published on July 19 and has been updated with further details about coverage.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spaceship sits on its pad in preparation for a test flight in 2018. (Blue Origin Photo) UPDATE: \u2018Best day ever!\u2019 Blue Origin sends Jeff Bezos on suborbital trip with oldest and youngest spacefliers Original story: VAN HORN, Texas \u2014 More than two decades after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos created Blue Origin, [&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":[509,1046,1250,493,4402],"class_list":["post-17517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-suborbital-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517"}],"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=17517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}