Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has released a spectacular video showing a space tourism trip on a New Shepard rocket. The video, titled Reserve your seat on New Shepard, is two and a half minutes long and shows moments from eight crewed flights from July 2021 to now.
The passengers were mostly wealthy people or celebrities who were offered free seats to promote space tourism. For example, actor William Shatner, star of the Star Trek TV series, can be seen in the video.
Although the video doesn’t specify the price of the trip, it is known that Virgin Galactic, a competitor of Blue Origin, charges $450,000 for a similar flight. The journey takes place in a six-person capsule that launches on top of a New Shepard suborbital rocket. Passengers reach an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, which is the boundary with space, the so-called Karman Line. At the peak point, they can stay weightless for several minutes and observe stunning views of the Earth. The capsule then descends by parachute, completing the 10-minute flight.
Space tourism is criticized as entertainment for the rich. However, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos believes that the development of infrastructure will reduce the cost of such trips, opening access to space for a wider range of people. According to Bezos, it will help create innovations that will improve life on Earth.
Blue Origin is also working on a more powerful New Glenn rocket, scheduled for launch later this year.
We previously reported on how a former cryptocurrency company would create a reality show with launching people into space.
According to digitaltrends.com
