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THE WEALTHIEST MAN on the planet Jeff Bezos rode his own rocket to the edge of space this afternoon, a key moment for a fledgling industry seeking to make the final frontier accessible to elite tourists.
Blue Origin made its first crewed mission, an 11-minute hop from west Texas to beyond the Karman line and back again, to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the first Moon landing.
“#NewShepard is on the pad. The launch team completed vehicle rollout this morning and final preparations are underway,” the company tweeted today.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson made the voyage on 11 July, narrowly beating the Amazon magnate in their battle of the billionaires.
But Blue Origin’s sights were set higher: both in the altitude to which its reusable New Shepard craft will ascend compared to Virgin’s spaceplane, but also in its ambitions.
Bezos, 57, founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the goal of one day building floating space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will work and live.
New Shepard has flown 15 uncrewed flights to put it through its paces and test safety mechanisms, like firing the capsule away from the launchpad if the rocket explodes, or landing it with one less parachute.
Lift-off was at 8am Central Time (2pm Irish time) from a remote facility in the west Texas desert called Launch Site One, some 40 kilometres north of the nearest town, Van Horn.
“Today is just the first of many flights to come on New Shepard,” Blue Origin’s sale director Ariane Cornell said in a livestream, adding ticket sales were now open.
Richest, oldest, youngest
Joining Bezos was barrier-breaking female aviator Wally Funk, who at 82 was the oldest ever astronaut, and 18-year-old Dutchman Oliver Daemen, who has become the youngest.
Rounding out the quartet was Jeff Bezos’ younger brother and best friend Mark, who directs the Bezos Family Foundation and works as a volunteer firefighter.
Notably absent is the still anonymous winner of a $28 million auction for a seat, who had “scheduling conflicts” and will take part in a future flight.
Daemen’s father, the CEO of a private equity firm, was a runner-up in the bidding, allowing his teenage son to become the company’s first paying customer.
After lift-off, New Shepard careened towards space at speeds exceeding 3700kph using a liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine whose only byproduct is water vapor.
The capsule separated from its booster, and when it got high enough, the astronauts unbuckled and experienced weightlessness for three to four minutes.
The spacecraft peaks at 106 kilometres, allowing the crew members to admire the curvature of the planet, and the inky black of the rest of the universe.
The booster returns autonomously to a landing pad just north of its launch site, while the capsule freefalls back to Earth with three giant parachutes, and finally a thruster, for a gentle landing in the desert.
- © AFP 2021.
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A good kick in the ballacks. Bring any man down
@Brian Dunne: Don’t they do that already? And blame a cow if questioned about it.
@Brian Dunne: excellent suggestion
Knowing is one thing, having the confidence to use it in a situation is another.
Honestly, the people I know who took it up are well able to use their skills and usually don’t even need to. Somehow it shows. Give the new learners time. Part of self defence training is apparently mental prep.
Minding your own business and keeping your mouth shut usually works best …
@Ciaran Dunne: Speak softly and carry a big stick
@Ciaran Dunne: Not the greatest qualities in a prospective Garda
It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, also not every style suits the individual , martial arts like shoes are not a one size fits all.
I support the futon roll up like Japanese police :)
No, but I know where to aim a kick, and thanks to watching some sport during the summer- how to eye gouge.
@Teresa O’Halloran: watching a few fights does not make one proficient in self defence.
If this was the case then we’d all be grand after checking out some YouTube clips.
More public funds wasted…
Better spend time policing themselves first, and put emphasis on violence de-escalation during training.
@Stan Papusa: it’s already in place and obviously doesn’t work, hence the high number of assaults on front line workers
@Disco Inferno: Do frontline workers have time to take it up? Certainly they should have it as part of their training.
It’s 2022 and the Gardaí don’t already have some martial arts training? Yikes!
@Todd Hebert: It says they did and are requesting more training.
In 63 years I haven’t had cause to fight since school.
Going to start boxing soon at my prime
When I went to school we children were told to kick a strange menacing adult on the shins and run away like Billio. No kung fu or judo was mentioned.
Today’s bearded check-shirt wearing gen would be better thought how to make a decent cup of coffee instead of flittering their coinage away on cafemuchachos and beard greese for their 1870′s ungainly growths.
I’m big and loud so I’ve always been grand, but I could fight my way out of a wet paper bag
As James Brown once sang “i dont know karate but i know crazy”
Yes. It’s what’s used when the government make life even harder for you while trying to live a simple life.
The best martial art for Gardai is BJJ. It is a basically submission grappling and the focus is on disabling an opponent without strikes.
i don’t know karate but i know karazy
Ya keep my mouth shut
I don’t know karate but i know crazy
This is great news for them. I worked with summer students who had part-time jobs as bouncers. One took up judo and the difference in him was amazing. It certainly gave him a great deal and he was better off and more cheerful, and oddly enough, in less trouble. Over a couple of months, he grew in confidence and was able to handle himself and de-escalate conflicts all of a sudden. He said himself that he noticed far less drunks trying it on, as if they could see he wasn’t easily daunted.
have your say