{"id":17519,"date":"2021-07-19T23:12:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T15:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-says-hes-excited-not-nervous-on-the-eve-of-his-suborbital-spaceflight\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T23:12:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T15:12:59","slug":"jeff-bezos-says-hes-excited-not-nervous-on-the-eve-of-his-suborbital-spaceflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-says-hes-excited-not-nervous-on-the-eve-of-his-suborbital-spaceflight\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos says he\u2019s excited, not nervous, on the eve of his suborbital spaceflight"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_631744\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-631744\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-631744\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/training1-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Crew and trainer inside New Shepard capsule mockup\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/training1-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/training1.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-631744\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Shepard\u2019s first crew, including Jeff Bezos at far left, are guided through a capsule mockup by trainer Kevin Sproge at far right. (Jeff Bezos via Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>VAN HORN, Texas \u2014 It\u2019s T-minus 1 day for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019 suborbital spaceflight, and he feels fine.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the world\u2019s richest individual is due to take a ride on the New Shepard spaceship built by his Blue Origin space venture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople keep asking me if I am nervous,\u201d Bezos said today on \u201cCBS This Morning,\u201d during an interview that also included his three crewmates. \u201cI am not really nervous. I am excited. I am curious. I want to know what we are going to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All four soon-to-be spacefliers seemed in good spirits as the faced the camera in their flight suits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been training,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cThis vehicle is ready, this crew is ready, this team is amazing. We just feel really good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and New Shepard crew on traveling into space\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/prK8nUuOcEg?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>In a video clip that Bezos posted to Instagram, the foursome could be seen checking out a mockup of the New Shepard capsule they\u2019re due to ride above the 100-kilometer (62-mile) space boundary at Blue Origin\u2019s Launch Site One near Van Horn.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Sproge, who will serve as a launch-pad guide for the crew, conducted classroom sessions as well as practice sessions in the full-scale simulator, which is called the Tortoise in honor of Blue Origin\u2019s slow-and-steady spaceflight strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow are you guys doing?\u201d Sproge asked at one point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI literally have had goosebumps since I stepped in,\u201d Jeff Bezos\u2019 brother and crewmate, Mark Bezos, replied. \u201cThey haven\u2019t gone away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRgaxboHIIQ\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2021%2Fjeff-bezos-says-hes-excited-not-nervous-eve-suborbital-spaceflight%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A2493.2550000958145%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"683\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background: white; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The crew will be stepping into the actual space-ready capsule, known as the RSS First Step (with RSS standing for \u201cReusable Spaceshlp\u201d), about 45 minutes before Tuesday\u2019s liftoff. Launch is scheduled for 8 a.m. CT (6 a.m. PT). Blue Origin\u2019s website is set to stream video coverage of the countdown and the roughly 11-minute, up-and-down flight starting at 6:30 a.m. CT (4:30 a.m. PT).<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no pilot per se. The New Shepard capsule and its booster are designed to operate autonomously, and there\u2019s a rocket-powered escape system to push the capsule away from the booster if an emergency occurs during launch or ascent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPersonally, I can\u2019t wait for liftoff,\u201d Mark Bezos said during the CBS interview. \u201cJust the rumble of the engine and that acceleration <em>\u2014 <\/em>I can\u2019t wait to see what that\u2019s going to feel like. I\u2019m really excited about that. And I\u2019m not going to lie, I\u2019m going to be pretty excited when I hear those parachutes open, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In between, the Bezos brothers and their crewmates <em>\u2014&nbsp;<\/em>Dutch student Oliver Daemen and aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who are due to become the world\u2019s youngest and oldest spacefliers \u2014 will experience a few minutes of weightlessness at the top of the ride.<\/p>\n<p>For a research project in the early 1960s, Funk went through the same training that the Mercury astronauts experienced. But the training couldn\u2019t provide a minutes-long dose of zero-G in the actual space environment. Now the 82-year-old says she\u2019s looking forward to being \u201cable to do somersaults, and tumble and do anything that I\u2019ve wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daemen said he hasn\u2019t been getting much sleep since joining the crew last week. The 18-year-old had been signed up for a later spaceflight, but is taking the place of a $28 million auction winner. Blue Origin said the high bidder had to defer the flight due to a scheduling conflict, and Daemen agreed to fill in.<\/p>\n<p>He took his lead from Bezos on the excited vs. nervous question: \u201cI think the excitement just overtakes the nervousness,\u201d Daemen told CBS.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the first crewed flight for Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital launch system, which has gone through 15 uncrewed tests over the past six years. Blue Origin is already signing up customers for follow-up flights, including two crewed missions scheduled for later this year. Ticket prices are being negotiated confidentially, but they\u2019re thought to be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Virgin Galactic is in the final stages of its own flight test program, with an eye toward taking on commercial passengers for suborbital space trips starting next year. Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, took a high-profile ride last week.<\/p>\n<p>Yet another milestone in private-sector spaceflight is scheduled for September, when billionaire Jared Isaacman and three crewmates are expected to ride a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule into orbit for a free-flying mission that Isaacman is paying for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 9 a.m. PT July 19:<\/strong> Bezos and his crewmates made the rounds at all the morning TV news shows.<\/p>\n<p>On CNN, for example, Bezos noted that some astronauts say seeing Earth from space changes them. \u201cThey see the thin limb of Earth\u2019s atmosphere, and realize how fragile the Earth is,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see it\u2019s just one planet. I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to change me, but I know it\u2019s going to, and I\u2019m excited to find out how.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a roundup of the morning videos:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cToday\u201d on NBC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Jeff Bezos On Blue Origin Space Launch: 'I Can't Wait To See What It's Like'\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CCEDSAE66LU?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><strong>\u201cGood Morning America\u201d on ABC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jeff Bezos speaks out hours ahead of historic trip to edge of space l GMA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-XqXr9YSdkI?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><strong>CNN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CNN speaks with Jeff Bezos ahead of space flight\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7dXTHGxbsAw?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><strong>Fox Business<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jeff Bezos goes one-on-one with Cavuto one day before Blue Origin mission\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uzmTsSezLx0?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><strong>Update for 3:10 p.m. PT July 19: <\/strong>The Bezos brothers stopped by one of the TV staging areas at Blue Origin\u2019s launch facility this afternoon to drop off some pre-launch leftovers:<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1417232080937881600&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2021%2Fjeff-bezos-says-hes-excited-not-nervous-eve-suborbital-spaceflight%2F&amp;sessionId=d168b67a39b54aad51559dbe1ce241bfd4852f39&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1417232080937881600\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782798649113737757=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chicken thighs, black-eyes peas &amp; Mac n cheese. @jeffbezos just hand-delivered us a family favorite. But don\u2019t call it his \u201clast meal!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Says training has wrapped for the day and he\u2019s still excited. pic.twitter.com\/dm3v32Svm5<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emily Chang (@emilychangtv) July 19, 2021<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Shepard\u2019s first crew, including Jeff Bezos at far left, are guided through a capsule mockup by trainer Kevin Sproge at far right. (Jeff Bezos via Instagram) VAN HORN, Texas \u2014 It\u2019s T-minus 1 day for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019 suborbital spaceflight, and he feels fine. On Tuesday, the world\u2019s richest individual is due to [&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":[509,1250,493,4402],"class_list":["post-17519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-suborbital-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17519"}],"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=17519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}