Blue Origin, the rocket company of Jeff Bezos, is preparing for its third crewed flight to the edge of space. This crewed mission will carry six people, two more than that previous suborbital space flights. The third crewed flight is scheduled for December 9 launch. This time there will be two special guests along with four other paid customers. The special guests include Michael Strahan – the popular host of Good Morning America. Strahan will be joined by Laura Shepard Churchley. She is the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard. It must be noted that Shepard was the first American to fly to space. He first went on a suborbital flight in the year 1961. Later, he walked on the moon.
They will be joined by space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor. The other three members who will be aboard the capsule are investor Evan Dick along with Bess Ventures found Lane Bess and his son Cameron. Lane and Cameron will create history by becoming the first parent-child pair to reach space. Blue Origin is calling Churchley and Strahan ‘honorary guests.’ Though others appear to be paying for the trip, there is no detail about how much they have paid for the trip. Just like William Shatner who did not pay for the flight when New Shepard went to space for the second time. 90-year-old Shatner created a record after the trip by becoming the oldest person ever to reach space.
The company said in a statement that the flight will move Blue Origin closer to its vision of people living in space and working for the benefit of Earth. This is going to be New Shepard’s third human flight in 2021. Blue Origin said that the flight will the sixth under the program this year and 19th in its history. Blue Origin is moving closer to launching a regular commercial space tourism service. The company has said that scientists and students will have access to the service to carry our experiment and microgravity conditions. By offering a free trip to space, the company is getting plenty of publicity for the service it is planning to launch. Blue Origin is competing with companies like Virgin Galactic for short trips. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to launch a similar commercial service but for longer orbital flights. SpaceX had a successful test mission in September this year by putting four civilians into space. The civilian crew was in space for three days.
