A file photo the New Shepard rocket taking off from the Blue Origin base near Van Horn, Texas, U.S.A. on May 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: BLUE ORIGIN

US-based Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), in collaboration with Jeff Bezos funded Blue Origin, has announced India as a partner nation in their human spaceflight programme for citizens from countries who have sent few, or no, astronaut to space.

On July 1, SERA announced that it will offer citizens from across the world six seats on a future mission of New Shepard, which is the reusable sub-orbital rocket of Blue Origin.

New Shepard will fly the selected astronauts on an 11-minute journey past the Kármán line (100 km), the internationally recognised boundary of space. Astronauts will experience several minutes of weightlessness before making a controlled descent back to the landing pad.

“We’re excited to have India as part of our human space flight programme. India has achieved remarkable milestones in its space journey the past few years, including becoming the first country to reach the southern pole of the Moon. We want to make space accessible for everyone, and are happy to offer this unique opportunity to an Indian citizen who wants to experience the wonders of space travel,” said Joshua Skurla, co-founder of SERA.

Who can register for space flight?

Any Indian citizen can register for the programme by paying a fee of ~$2.50 to cover the cost of verification checks that ensure safe and fair voting. The final candidate will be voted for by the public for an opportunity to fly to space on board the New Shepard mission.

“Our mission is to democratise space by enabling citizens from over 150 countries with limited access to space to participate in ground-breaking research and create history. Our aim is to empower people globally to have a voice and stake in the future of space exploration,” added Joshua Skurla.

Process of voting who will get a seat on New Shepherd

SERA added that the potential astronauts will be required to meet the physical requirements laid down by Blue Origin. They can garner votes by telling their story to the public, using their mission profile pages, social media, and other resources. Voting will progress through candidate elimination across three phases. The public will vote only for candidates from their nation or region, except for the sixth global seat.

“By giving communities the power to choose their astronauts, we ensure this mission is driven by people, for people. This approach will ignite national conversations on space and foster international collaboration in space exploration. The minimal physical requirements and training for New Shepard’s flight lowers the barrier to entry by allowing more diverse and inclusive participation in space,” said Sam Hutchison, co-founder of SERA.

The six persons chosen for the mission will arrive three days prior to the flight for training at Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas, U.S.A.

New Delhi:

Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin resumed its space flight today, after a two-year hiatus. A group of six adventurers completed an 11-minute journey to space after liftoff from Texas.

Mission NS-25 is the seventh crewed mission for Blue Origin, the space company founded and owned by Jeff Bezos.

30-year-old Gopi Thotakura, a pilot from Andhra Pradesh, was also part of the six-man crew. Preserve Life Corp, a medical institution close to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that focuses mostly on holistic health methods, was co-founded by Gopi Thotakura.

He has become the first Indian to travel into space as a tourist on Blue Origin’s return flight.

“It was amazing… you have to see it with your eyes”, said Gopi Thotakura after his space trip.

“I can’t describe how it is to look into space… everybody should go to the space. It was good to see Earth from the other side,” he added.

“Gopi Thotakura is a lifelong pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive. He flies jets commercially, in addition to piloting bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes. He’s also the co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied health”, said Blue Origin about the Indian crew member on social media platform X.

Gopi Thotakura is a lifelong pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive. He flies jets commercially, in addition to piloting bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes. He’s also the co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied… pic.twitter.com/of2nzsPvEd

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 19, 2024

The other crew members included Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schallera, and Ed Dwight.

90-year-old Dwight surpassed Star Trek star William Shatner, who was nearly two months younger, to become the oldest person to travel into space.

Ed Dwight is the first American Black man to be trained as an astronaut. Dwight was unable to achieve his goal of being the first black astronaut in space in 1961.

“We just completed our seventh human spaceflight and the 25th flight for the New Shepard program. Our #NS25 astronaut crew included: Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Ed Dwight, Ken Hess, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura. Thank you, astronauts”, said Blue Origin on X after the space flight.

We just completed our seventh human spaceflight and the 25th flight for the New Shepard program. Our #NS25 astronaut crew included: Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Ed Dwight, Ken Hess, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura. Thank you, astronauts! Learn more: https://t.co/4a0UXRy6p6pic.twitter.com/kzL5GIQSql

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 19, 2024

“I was the first guy in the world to be famous for not doing something. Needless to say, I’m overwhelmed”, said Dwight before the liftoff.

Dwight was a skilled test pilot when President John F. Kennedy reassigned him to a highly competitive Air Force program, which was considered a path to the astronaut corps. But in the end, he was not chosen.

“This is a life-changing experience, everybody needs to do this,” said Dwight after the 11-minute space flight.

“I thought I didn’t really need this in my life,” reflecting on his omission from the astronaut corps, which was his first experience with failure as a young man. “But I lied”, he added.

With inputs from IANS, AFP

Washington:

Blue Origin is set to fly adventurers to the final frontier on Sunday for the first time in nearly two years, reigniting competition in the space tourism market after a rocket mishap put its crewed operations on hold.

Six people including Black sculptor and former Air Force pilot Ed Dwight, who was controversially spurned by NASA’s astronaut corps in the 1960s, will blast off at around 8:30 am local time (1330 GMT) from the company’s Launch Site One base in west Texas.

Dwight — at 90 years, 8 months, and 10 days — is set to become the oldest person to go to space, narrowly pipping Star Trek actor William Shatner, who was almost two months younger when he launched with Blue Origin in 2021.

Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for the enterprise owned and founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who sees short jaunts on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a stepping stone to greater ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy rocket and lunar lander.

French entrepreneur Sylvain Chiron, one of the crew, told AFP he was most excited about “this sensation of leaving the world of men and seeing the Earth as a whole, from above, without borders, with all its fragility and beauty.”

To date, Blue Origin has flown 31 people aboard New Shepard — a small, fully reusable rocket system named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

Second nonagenarian

The program encountered a setback when a New Shepard rocket caught fire shortly after launch on September 12, 2022. The uncrewed capsule ejected in time, meaning astronauts would have been safe had they flown.

A federal investigation revealed an overheating engine nozzle was at fault. Blue Origin took corrective steps and carried out a successful uncrewed launch in December 2023, paving the way for Sunday’s mission.

After lift-off, the sleek and roomy capsule separates from the booster, which produces zero carbon emissions as its fuel — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen — combust to produce water vapor. The rocket performs a precision vertical landing.

As the spaceship soars beyond the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, passengers can marvel at the Earth’s curvature and unbuckle their seats to float — or even perform jumping jacks — during a few minutes of weightlessness.

The capsule then reenters the atmosphere, deploying its parachutes for a gentle desert landing in a puff of sand.

Bezos himself was on the program’s first-ever crewed flight in 2021. A few months later, Shatner blurred the lines between science fiction and reality when he became the world’s oldest-ever astronaut, decades after he first played a space traveler.

Dwight will become only the second nonagenarian to venture beyond Earth.

Ticket prices are a well-guarded secret, but guests like Dwight — whose seat was sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity — ride for free.

To space, finally

Blue Origin’s competitor in suborbital space is Virgin Galactic, which deploys a supersonic spaceplane that is dropped from beneath the wings of a massive carrier plane at high altitude.

Virgin Galactic experienced its own two-year safety pause because of an anomaly linked with the 2021 flight that carried its founder British tycoon Richard Branson into space. But the company later hit its stride with half a dozen successful flights in quick succession.

Its next mission is set for June, after which it will head into another pause to build out a new class of advanced spaceplane.

Sunday’s mission finally gives Dwight the chance he was denied decades ago.

He was an elite test pilot when he was appointed by president John F Kennedy to join a highly competitive Air Force program known as a pathway for the astronaut corps, but was ultimately not picked.

He left the military in 1966, citing the strain of racial politics, before dedicating his life to telling Black history through sculpture. His art, displayed around the country, includes iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and more.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin will resume flights to space on Sunday, ending a near two-year pause of crewed operations following a 2022 mission failure.

The NS-25 mission will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with the launch window for the flight starting at 0830 CT (1330 GMT), the company said on Tuesday.

The New Shepard rocket, which flies cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space, has been grounded since a September 2022 uncrewed mission failed roughly a minute after liftoff from Texas, forcing the rocket’s capsule full of NASA experiments to safely eject mid-flight.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration closed its review of Blue Origin’s New Shepard investigation last year, agreeing with the company’s findings. It required Blue Origin to make 21 corrective actions, including an engine redesign and “organizational changes”.

The upcoming NS-25 mission will have six crew members, including former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate in the United States.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos crew mates after they flew on Blue Origin’s inaugural flight to the edge of space in 2021. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission.

Mr. Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army’s Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.

The flight date is yet to be announced, the aerospace company said.

This mission will be the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. To date, the programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin.

According to Blue Origin, “Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive.”

He is the co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

In addition to flying jets commercially, he pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot.

A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Andhra Pradesh-born Thotakura is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Other crew members of the flight include Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by President John F Kennedy in 1961 as the nation’s first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.

During the flight, each astronaut will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future.

This programme gives students access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets, including an all-digital method to create and send postcards. The Club’s mission is to inspire and mobilise future generations to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) for the benefit of Earth.

From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.

New Shepard’s engine is fuelled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During the flight, the only byproduct is water vapour with no carbon emissions, the company said.