Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin gets the Federal Aviation Administration’s clearance for its first human space flight.
It was only a few days ago, that Richard Branson became the first billionaire to travel to space in Virgin Galactic’s Spacecraft. However, Bezos and his company do not regard it as a space flight as Branson’s flight ended behind the Karman Line- the edge of space. Now Jeff Bezos is all set for the adventurous journey and he plans to cross the Karman Line. The FAA clearance was awarded to Blue Origin’s New Shepard after the verification of its hardware and software operations. The NS-15 test flight had taken place on April 14th, 2021.
The rocket voyage will take place on the 20th of July and the crew includes the company’s founder Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark along with four others. It is expected to travel to an altitude beyond 100 kilometers. On coming back to Earth, the booster will separate from the capsule and the capsule will be made to land on Earth safely by a triple parachute system.
SpaceX is also set for space trips but they aim to take passengers into orbit later this year. The prices fixed by the three companies for space travel also show a considerable difference. While a ticket in Virgin Galactic will cost you $250,000, the same in Blue Origin and SpaceX will cost you $500,000 and $55 million, respectively.
An auction took place to sell a seat to fly with Jeff Bezos in his upcoming flight and was sold at $28 million. The buyer’s name is yet to be revealed.
