Things have been hot lately at Blue Origin, the commercial space company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Since Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon to take on a more hands-on role on his other projects, the company has made some rather positive strides. This includes a test flight to the “dress rehearsal,” which took place on April 14th, which brought the New Shepard one step closer to taking passengers into space.
Following the success of this flight, Blue Origin recently announced that they plan to operate the first crewed flight with the New Shepard by July 20th. In addition to the Blue Origin astronaut crew, a seat will be reserved for a commercial passenger. As of May 5th, Blue Origin announced that this ticket is available for auction and that the proceeds will be donated to the Blue Club foundation Club for the Future.
The announcement coincided with the 60th anniversary of the first flight of an American crewed astronaut into space. The astronaut in question was none other than the namesake of the Blue Origin spacecraft – Alan Shepard, who flew into space on May 5, 1961 as part of Project Mercury on board the Freedom 7 capsule. Shepard was the first of seven astronauts (the Mercury Seven) to go into space between 1961 and 1963.
Shepard also commanded the Apollo 14 mission and was one of the two mission astronauts who walked the moon. Shepard died on July 21, 1998 in Pebble Beach, California, after being diagnosed with leukemia two years earlier. His wife died a little over a month later, and both were cremated and their ashes were distributed by Navy Helicopter over Stillwater Cove near their home.
During a press conference on May 5, Ariane Cornell, Director of Astronaut Sales at Blue Origin said:
“We’re selling the very first seat on New Shepard. The auction is a three-phase process of approximately five weeks that begins today. Anyone can register at Blue Origin dot com and start bidding today. Let’s say the most active bidders will be very much when we open these tickets we know who to turn to. “
The first phase of the auction began on May 5th with a sealed online bid. During this time, all bids will be kept invisible on the auction website. The second phase (unsealed online bidding) will begin on May 19th, where all bids will be visible and participants will have to exceed the highest bid to proceed. The highlight will be on June 12th when the winner will be announced during a live event shared online.
As stated on their website, the flight will depart from the company’s Launch Site One near the town of Van Horn, West Texas. As soon as the launcher has reached a height of 6.7 km, the crew capsule (known as the RSS First Step Crew Capsule) separates from the booster of the first stage and the crew experiences about ten minutes of weightlessness.
A minute later, the capsule peaks at around 100 km above sea level, or just after the Kármán line. The capsule then deploys its parachutes and makes a soft landing, the entire experience taking about ten minutes. Under the terms of the auction, “the astronaut” (the auction winner) must complete training at a Blue Origin facility – most likely at a facility in Kent, Washington or Culberson County, Texas.
They also specify physical requirements, ranging in size and weight from 5’0 “and 110 lbs to 6’4” and 223 lbs. During the flight, the astronaut is also responsible for attaching and detaching in less than 15 seconds during and after ~ 3 minutes of weightlessness. You must also be able to withstand the triple weight gain that comes with the 2 minute vigorous ascent and the 5.5 times gain that comes with the descent into the atmosphere.
Lastly, they need to be comfortable sitting in a capsule for up to 90 minutes (40 minutes planned) without taking a toilet break. There’s still no indication of how much the ticket might cost, but doing so during the auction is an interesting approach. This sets it apart a little from other space tourism companies like Virgin Galactic, which charge $ 250,000 per seat for future flights on their suborbital spacecraft, the VSS Unity.
Over the years, Musk has made predictions of what a one-way trip to Mars with SpaceX could cost. The estimates vary between $ 200,000 and $ 500,000. There’s also the scheduled lunar flyby for 2023, when a spaceship will transport Japanese fashion titan, billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa and a crew of select artists around the moon (also known as the Dear Moon campaign).
Interior of the New Shepard Crew capsule from Blue Origin. Photo credit: Blue Origin
There’s also Inspiration4, a philanthropic competition designed to raise awareness and funding for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It will also be the first purely civilian mission in space with four crew members advocating the ideals of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity. This competition is sponsored by Jared Isaacman, billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments, who will also serve as mission commander.
In other words, commercial space travel and space tourism have a reputation for being an exclusive playground for the super-rich (and for good reason!). But with time and investment, prices will fall and space will become much more accessible – which is exactly why Bezos, Musk, Branson, and other leaders in commercial space started their businesses in the first place.
For Blue Origin, this flight will also be the culmination of over a decade of work and more than a few setbacks. In recent years, the company has lost ground as its rocket development has stalled while SpaceX (its main competitor) has not only won lucrative government contracts, but has also steadily improved reusability and competitive launch services.
Bezos wants to change that. The New Shepard’s recent test flight was a good first step. This upcoming flight and the auction that leads to it will be an excellent sequel! In the meantime, prospective buyers should visit Blue Origin’s website to read the terms and conditions and place their bids!
Further reading: The Verge, Blue Origin
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