Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had, earlier this year, stepped down from his fame-company and decided to focus on other ventures of his. One venture that particularly has his attention is his aerospace endeavour, Blue Origin.
The next New Shepard flight, named NS-18(being the 18th flight of New Shepard), will house a four-man crew. The two names included on the crew that has been revealed thus far are Dr Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, Vice-Chair, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Dassault Systèmes and co-founder of Medidata.
“This is a fulfilment of my greatest childhood dream,” Boshuizen said. “More importantly, though, I see this flight as an opportunity to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM and catalyse the next generation of space explorers. After all, our future of life in space is in their very capable hands.”
Meanwhile, “I’ve spent my entire career working to extend people’s lives. However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive,” Vries said in a statement.
“Furthermore, astronauts can experience the ‘overview effect,’ gaining a new perspective on how fragile and precious our planet, those resources, and our civilization are. Playing a part in advancing the space industry and one day making those resources and that understanding available to everyone, is an incredible opportunity. I’ve been passionate about aviation and space for as long as I can remember, so this flight is truly a dream come true,” he added.
In a statement, Blue Origin indicated a lift-off at 8:30 AM CDT from Launch Site One in West Texas.
This will mark the second human flight of New Shepard. The spacecraft famously completed its first human flight on July 20 with Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Blue Origin’s first customer, Oliver Daemen on board.
