Blue Origin has flown a crew of four onboard a New Shepard rocket on an 11-minute long suborbital spaceflight. It was the first time humans fly onboard the vehicle, making its sixteenth flight since its debut in April 2015.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark were aboard the crew capsule for the flight, along with 82-year old Wally Funk, who is an accomplished female pilot, instructor, and air accident investigator, and a member of what was unofficially known as the \u201cMercury 13\u201d, a group of women that passed the same physiological tests to become an astronaut that the male \u201cMercury 7\u2033 did.<\/p>\n
While Wally Funk became the oldest person ever in space, surpassing John Glenn at age 77, she was joined by the youngest person ever in space. 18-year old Oliver Daemen, the son of the second-highest bidder in the auction for a seat on this flight, joining the NS-16 crew after the winning bidder (with a $28 million bid) chose to take a later flight, citing \u201cschedule conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
New Shepard flight NS-16 launched from Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital launch facility on the Corn Ranch, a large property purchased by Jeff Bezos, in the desert near Van Horn, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n