The 90-year-old Canadian actor was one of the four passengers in the capsule remained for more than 100 kilometers above sea level before returning, successfully in the Texas desert.
Le Monde with AFP
For the second time, a rocket of Blue Origy has passed its flight in space with passengers on board, Wednesday, October 13, from Texas, in the United States. The experiment lasted only eleven minutes. The American billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, had participated in the first trip, in July.
The New Shepard rocket, fully automated and reusable, takes off vertically. It is composed of a launcher and a capsule that comes off in flight. Thus propelled, it has exceeded what is called the Karman line, which marks, 100 kilometers above sea level, the conventional boundary of space.
Passengers can then detach from their seat and float a few moments by weightlessness. The capsule is then fell on the ground, braked by three parachutes and a retropropulger. Images filmed by Blue Origin showed the passengers get out of the capsule and take a few steps, welcomed in the Texas desert by Mr. Bezos.
The launcher came back, on his side, to arrive automatically not far from his place of takeoff. The take-off was initially scheduled at 9 o’clock (16 hours in Paris), but was rejected by about thirty minutes after suspension of the countdown for ultimate checks. The four passengers finally took off at 9:49.
“The most intense experience of my life”, according to William Shatner
The actor William Shatner, who embodied the famous Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series, was part of the passengers. At 90, he became the oldest person to reach the space and commented on his return, having lived in the space “the most intense experience” of his life.
Three other passengers were on board: Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, a company that photographs the earth in high resolution thanks to satellites; Glen de Vries, co-founder of Medidata Solutions, a company specializing in clinical trial tracking software for the pharmaceutical industry – both paid for the trip (the amount was not made public). Finally, Audrey Powers, a leader of Blue Origin charged including theft operations and the maintenance of the rocket, completed the crew.
Less than three months after the flight of Mr. Bezos in space, this second flight shows the determination of his company to win in the coveted area of spatial tourism. The competition rage with Virgin Galactic, which offers a similar experience of a few minutes. In July, British billionaire Richard Branson also stolen towards the space aboard a ship of the company he founded.
In September, the Spacex group, Elon Musk, on his side sent four spatial tourists for three days in orbit around the earth, an otherwise more ambitious and expensive mission. Long led by state agencies, this spatial conquest is now more and more supported by private companies.