First Flight After 2022 Launch Failure
6 Passengers Safely Return After 10-Minute Space Trip
The New Shepard spacecraft of Blue Origin, a U.S. space exploration company that had suspended flights due to a launch failure in 2022, successfully completed its first manned spaceflight in two years and returned safely to Earth.
On the 19th (local time), foreign media including AP and AFP reported that the New Shepard spacecraft, carrying six passengers, took off from Blue Origin's Van Horn launch site in West Texas at around 9:36 a.m. and completed about 10 minutes of spaceflight before safely returning to Earth. The spacecraft surpassed the 100 km altitude 'Karman line,' considered the boundary between Earth and space, reaching an altitude of 105.7 km, where the passengers experienced several minutes of weightlessness. Afterwards, the manned capsule deployed large parachutes and landed on the ground.
Ed Dwight, a former American pilot and the first Black astronaut candidate in the 1960s, is seen walking out of a spacecraft capsule that landed near the Van Horn launch site in Texas on the 19th (local time), raising both arms high. [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]
Among the passengers was Ed Dwight, a 90-year-old former pilot, drawing attention. He was the first Black astronaut candidate trained for spaceflight in the 1960s but was not ultimately selected to go to space.
He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953 and nine years later entered the Air Force's 'Space Research Pilot School' to pursue his dream of becoming the first Black astronaut. After completing the training program, he applied to NASA to become an astronaut, but his name was not on the list of 14 astronauts announced by NASA in 1963. At the time, President John F. Kennedy's administration was promoting the inclusion of minority citizens in the space program, but after Kennedy's assassination, Dwight gave up on his dream. Later, he confessed to experiencing racial discrimination at the pilot school and appeared in a documentary program, claiming, "If everything had been equal, I would have gone to the moon."
After the spaceflight, Dwight told AP, "It was a life-changing experience," adding, "I thought I didn't need this kind of experience in my life, but it is truly exhilarating." With this flight, Dwight set the record as the oldest astronaut. The previous oldest astronaut was veteran actor William Shatner, who flew on Blue Origin's spacecraft in October 2021. Shatner is known for playing Captain James Kirk in the popular 1960s American TV series 'Star Trek.' Dwight's birthday is about two months earlier than Shatner's, giving him the record for the oldest astronaut. AP reported that the nonprofit organization 'Space for Humanity' partially sponsored Dwight's trip. Blue Origin did not disclose the cost paid by the passengers.
Blue Origin had suspended its spaceflight business for two years following a spacecraft launch failure in 2022. The New Shepard spacecraft, equipped with an unmanned capsule, crashed about 8 km above the ground one minute after launch in 2022, with flames erupting from the booster engine section. The capsule automatically separated from the rocket and deployed parachutes to land safely on the ground. In March last year, Blue Origin announced that the cause of the accident was a structural defect in the rocket engine nozzle.
Blue Origin was founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. With this successful flight, a total of 37 people have traveled to space through Blue Origin so far.
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