Now that Blue Origin’s latest star-studded spaceflight has come and gone, some thrillseekers may naturally be wondering, “when will it be my turn to go to space?”
Monday morning’s launch from the private space company’s rural west Texas launch site made headlines for its crew of famed women who boarded the spacecraft for a brief flight above Earth’s atmosphere. Singer Katy Perry, broadcast journalist Gayle King and four other women made history on the voyage by becoming the first all-female space crew in more than 60 years.
The six women are also among a select few people who have ever had the opportunity to board Blue Origin’s famous New Shepard spacecraft, which transports up to six passengers to experience weightlessness and stunning views of Earth. With Monday morning’s launch in the books, only 58 people have now ever soared more than 60 miles high to the edge of space with Blue Origin since it began offering crewed flights in 2021.
But the passengers aren’t just anybody, and their tickets aren’t cheap – if they have to pay at all.
Among those who have previously boarded the New Shepard’s crew capsule since its first ticket sold for $28 million are celebrities, entrepreneurs, renowned scientists and a lucky few others.
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So, is a spaceflight within reach for you any time soon? Here’s everything we know:
Who owns Blue Origin?
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, most known for founding Amazon, is also the founder of his private space technology company Blue Origin.
Bezos himself even boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard for its maiden crewed voyage in July 2021, which came after the spacecraft flew on 15 flights tests beginning in 2012.
Blue Origin launched Katy Perry, Gayle King, crew of all-women to space
Perry and King, who co-hosts “CBS Mornings,” were on the latest launch Monday morning of the New Shepard, which is also used in uncrewed scientific missions. Also on the flight was civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez, an Emmy Award-winning journalist
.
The women made history as the the first all-female crew to travel to space since 1963, when the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova completed a solo spaceflight, Blue Origin has said.
What happened during New Shepard’s latest human spaceflight?
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the 60-foot-tall rocket topped with the gum-dropped shape crew capsule got off the ground right on time at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning.
Launching from Blue Origin’s private west Texas ranch, known as Launch Site One, the New Shepard reached supersonic speeds surpassing 2,000 mph during its ascent.
Around the 3-minute mark, the rocket booster separated from the crew capsule, at which point the women aboard became weightless as their spacecraft continued toward its highest point. The New Shepard’s crew capsule then took them on its famed brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of space.
At this point, the women were permitted to safely unstrap from their seats to experience a few minutes of microgravity and gaze out the
to take in a stunning view of Earth. The women on board could be heard on the webcast marveling at the moon and the thin blue line of Earth’s atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the rocket booster headed back to the ground while firing its engines and using its fins to slow and control its descent to land about seven minutes after liftoff about two miles from the launchpad.
The capsule then began what Blue Origin refers to as a “stable freefall” – plummeting back to Earth. The women on board could soon be heard whooping in joy as three massive parachutes deployed after about nine minutes into the flight and the capsule made a soft landing two minutes later in the desert, sending up plumes of dust.
Who else has gone to space on Blue Origin rocket?
The women are not the first big-name stars to take their fame into orbit. Passengers on Blue Origin’s New Shepard have hailed from a variety of backgrounds, and have included tech executives, entrepreneurs, scientists and celebrities.
In 2021, both “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and NFL legend Michael Strahan boarded the New Shepard on separate flights.
Shatner, who was 90 at the time, embarked on his voyage Oct. 13 that year, becoming the oldest person to ever make a spaceflight. Strahan’s spaceflight then came toward the end of 2021 on Dec. 11, when he flew with a crew that included Laura Shepard Churchley, Alan Shepard’s daughter.
How much does it cost to ride on a Blue Origin spacecraft?
But if you have dreams of blasting off to orbit on a Blue Origin spacecraft, you likely need to either have very deep pockets or a name that’s recognizable enough to get you invited as an honored guest.
Though Blue Origin does not publicly list prices on its website, a form to reserve a seat requires customers to agree to a $150,000 deposit alone.
If the price of the first ticket sold for a Blue Origin spaceflight is any indicator, seats likely cost in the millions of dollars. The $28 million ticket price was the winning bid in an auction that included 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries.
Could spaceflights become more accessible? Space tourism industry grows
For nearly four years since its first crewed spaceflight, New Shepard has served as a powerful symbol of Blue Origin’s commercial spaceflight ambitions amid a growing space tourism industry.
Spaceflight, once a sector dominated by government space agencies like NASA, is increasingly becoming a commercial enterprise as billionaire-led companies like Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic look to develop their own spacecraft.
The U.S. space agency is even poised to soon be potentially led by Jared Isaacman, himself a billionaire who has funded two of his own private spaceflights with SpaceX.
With that in mind, will hopeful spacefarers one day find that space travel only becomes more and more accessible? That remains to be seen.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
