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Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, prepares to take off aboard his company’s Blue Origin New Shepard launcher for a suborbital flight today in an experience that will make history as a new era of private spaceflight begins.
The American billionaire flies with 3 other people from a desert location in West Texas for an 11-minute flight to the edge of space, nine days after a similar trip by his British rival Richard Branson via his space tourism company , “Virgin Galactic”, which was considered a successful maiden flight.
Branson went to space first, but Bezos is set to fly higher – 62 miles (100 km) for Blue Origin versus 53 miles (86 km) for Virgin Galactic – in what experts call the first flight. unmanned space vehicle to the world with a crew of fully civilians.
The founder of e-commerce giant Amazon will be joined by his brother and private equity CEO, Mark Bezos. Trailblazer Wally Funk and recent high school graduate Oliver Damon are set to become the oldest and youngest person to reach space.
If all goes according to plan, the company’s New Shepard rocket and capsule will take off for an 11-minute flight, taking off and landing outside of Van Horn, Texas, at Blue Origin’s facility, dubbed Launch Site One. . The rocket will carry the spacecraft on a suborbital trajectory before separating, allowing the crew to descend into their capsule under parachute for a ground landing.
Take-off has been set for 9:00 a.m. EDT (1:00 p.m. GMT).
You can watch the historic missile launch on BlueOrigin.com, where it will be broadcast live at 7:30 a.m. EST (11:30 a.m. GMT).
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