On February 25, private space company Blue Origin successfully launched its 10th space tourism mission, sending six passengers on a suborbital flight.
The New Shepard suborbital spacecraft was launched from a site in West Texas at 10:50 a.m. ET. For 10 minutes of flight, tourists were able to feel weightlessness, see the cold and dark space, as well as notice the curvature of the Earth’s surface from a height of 100 kilometers.
NS-30 liftoff! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/6lcKhc0Rt8
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) February 25, 2025
After the flight, the capsule with the crew landed softly. During the descent, all three of the capsule’s parachutes opened, distinguishing this flight from the test launch in early February, when one of the parachutes failed.
The mission was designated NS-30, as this is the 30th New Shepard flight overall.
Crew
The flight was attended by six passengers who jokingly called themselves Perfect 10, alluding to the mission’s sequence number. Among them:
- Lane Bess is a venture capitalist who flew New Shepard for the second time,
- Jesús Calleja is a Spanish television presenter,
- Elaine Chia Hyde is an entrepreneur and physicist,
- Richard Scott is a reproductive endocrinologist,
- Tushar Shah is a partner in a hedge fund.
The name of the sixth crew member has not been released by the company, but thanks to a photo and a mission patch, it is known that his last name is Wilson.
Price of a space ticket
Blue Origin does not disclose the cost of the flight. However, the company’s main competitor, Virgin Galactic, sells tickets for similar suborbital flights for $600,000.
This successful launch confirms the growing popularity of space tourism and paves the way for new missions.
Earlier we reported on how Blue Origin sent the oldest man into space.
According to Space
