Blue Origin Finishes the NS-22 Mission and Launches Six New Astronauts Into Space

Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made history with the completion of the sixth crewed space mission of Blue Origin known as; the N-22 mission. Six passengers, several of whom achieved firsts in spaceflight, were transported to the ultimate frontier on august 4rth, thanks to the firm’s Shepard suborbital spacecraft.

At 9:57 a.m. EDT (1357 GMT), New Shepard launched from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility. The NS-22 mission was a success for Blue Origin. It returned to Earth approximately 10 minutes later. Even though the trip was short, the crew members returned with memories that they would cherish forever.

About The Mission

On Thursday, Blue Origin successfully sent a brand-new team of six astronauts to the farthest reaches of space, concluding the New Shepard 22 mission. At 7:27 p.m. IST (a little later than scheduled), the New Shepard booster was launched from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas. The crew capsule was sent beyond the Karman Line, the accepted outer limit of space, at a height of 100 km, before the rocket landed. The astronauts departed after passing this line and spent a short time in low gravity before the capsule parachuted down and landed in the desert. The NS-22 mission marks this booster’s ninth successful landing, according to the corporation. Notably, this was the 22nd New Shepard launch overall and the sixth human spaceflight for Blue Origin.

This mission marks the third for Blue Origin this year and the twenty-second flight for both the launch vehicle and Blue Origin. Blue Origin combined the NS4 first stage launcher and RSS First Step spacecraft for the NS-22 mission. The Propulsion Module is another name for the aircraft’s booster. During the NS-14 mission at the beginning of 2021, the RSS (Reusable Space Ship) First Step and the booster (NS4) made their initial spaceflights. The identical spacecraft, RSS First Step, launched on NS-16, Blue Origin’s first crewed flight, on July 20, 2021. Between NS-21 and NS-22, the launch vehicle had a 61-day turnaround.

NS-22 Mission Crew

Sara Sabry

As the first Egyptian to fly into space, Sara Sabry founded the Deep Space Initiative, which aims to “expand accessibility for space research,” according to Blue Origin. She successfully completed a two-week simulated lunar voyage at the LunAres Research Station in Poland, becoming Egypt’s first analog astronaut in 2021. Sabry earned a mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree from the American University in Cairo and a biomedical engineering master’s degree from the Politecnico di Milano. Space for Humanity is the sponsor of Sabry’s seat.

Mário Ferreira

According to Blue Origin, Mário Ferreira became the first Portuguese citizen to fly into space. Ferreira is the head of Pluris Investments Group and a businessman from Portugal.

According to Blue Origin, the group consists of 40 firms from a variety of industries, including tourism, media, real estate, renewable energy, and insurance. Scuba diving, the London Marathon, and the Dakar motor rally have all been among Ferreira’s past endeavors.

Vanessa O’Brien

Vanessa O’Brien, a British-American explorer, is the first woman to accomplish the extreme trifecta of the Explorers, which also requires conquering Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, and exploring the Challenger Deep, the lowest part of our globe. Following Victor Viscovo, who took to the skies in a Blue Origin NS-21 on June 4, O’Brien will be the second person to finish the three tasks. According to her online profile, O’Brien has held top managerial positions at financial firms like Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, and the Bank of America.

Kelly, Clint III

Clint Kelly established the Autonomous Land Vehicle project in 1984 while working at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which according to Blue Origin was an early-stage undertaking involving autonomous driving technology. He oversaw initiatives for robotics and computer science research. Kelly and his wife like photographing animals, and they have traveled to every continent.

Steve Young

Between 1992 and 2021, Steve Young owned and operated Young’s Communications LLC, a telecommunications contracting company in Florida. Young is the proprietor of the Pineapples restaurant in Melbourne, Florida, as well as a committee member of the Space Coast Coastal Conservation Association and other charity organizations.

Coby Cotton

Dude Perfect, which Blue Origin claims have 57 million subscribers and is the “most-subscribed sports channel” on the platform, was co-founded by Coby Cotton. In 2009, Cotton founded Dude Perfect with his brother Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Tyler Toney, and Cody Jones, who were also his college roommates. They specialized in comedic movies and stunt shots. MoonDAO provided sponsorship for Cotton’s seat. Members buy tokens to take part in a “collective… unified by the objective of decentralizing access to space science and exploration,” according to the website of organization.

Achievement for the Crew

On NS-22, Mário Ferreira and Sara Sabry make history as the first Portuguese and Egyptian astronauts, respectively. Online voters chose Colby Cotton, the co-creator of the “Dude Perfect” channel on YouTube, for this mission. Launch Site One is close to the Blue Origin test facility for their BE-4 engine, which will power both their New Glenn rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. After this launch, O’Brien became the 1st woman to reach both the highest and lowest places on Earth (Mt. Everest and Challenger Deep), as well as space, and she earned the Explorers’ Extreme Trifecta Guinness World Record. Other crew members were Young, the former CEO of “Young’s Communications” LLC (Y-COM), Kelly, a research scientist in the fields of robotics and computer science, and an active member of “The Space Coast Coastal Conservation Association” (CCA).

According to Phil Joyce, senior vice president of New Shepard, “it’s a privilege for our team to give our consumers a life-changing shift in perspective of our fragile planet.” “We have now flown 31 people above the Kármán line since New Shepard’s first human flight, which was just over a year ago. We appreciate these early space pioneers for assisting us in achieving our goal of having millions of people live and work in space for the benefit of Earth.

However, the mission’s cost was kept a secret since Blue Origin has never been willing to talk about it. According to The New York Times, the cost of prior missions has ranged from nothing to an astounding $28 million only to witness zero gravity for just a few minutes.

Info Regarding Capsule

NS-22 was Blue Origin’s sixth human spaceflight. The first launch took place in July 2021 and included firm founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation legend Wally Funk, and student Oliver Daemen. After flying with a crew on three flights in 2022, New Shepard also flew with a crew on two flights in 2021. A reusable, totally automated rocket-capsule combination is called New Shepard. Close to the launch location, the rocket makes a vertical powered landing before the capsule quickly lands under the parachute. The spacecraft’s passengers get to view how the Earth curves against the darkness of space and experience weightlessness for a small period.

Sources: spaceflightinsider.com  republicworld.com