Blue Origin NS-16

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  none Launch date - time  20 July 2021 - 13:11 UTC Launch site  Corn Ranch, LS-1 Launch vehicle  New Shepard (NS4) Booster  NS-4 Spacecraft  RSS First Step Manufacturer / Operator  Blue Origin Mass (kg)  12519 kg?? Crew size   4 Earth flight:    Apogee  107 km Landing date - time  20 July 2021 - 13:21 UTC Landing location  Corn Ranch Mission type  Sub-orbital human spaceflight, 4 crew Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  10 min, 10 sec Landing crew  launch crew

Launched Crew:

Description:

• First Blue Origin manned flight.

Mission details:

• Blue Origin NS-16 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin which flew on 20 July 2021. The mission was the sixteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft, and its first flight with humans aboard. It carried into space American billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, pilot and Mercury 13 member Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen. The flight commenced from Blue Origin's Corn Ranch sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the third flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step, both having previously flown on NS-14 and NS-15 earlier in the year.
• Blue Origin NS-16 was the first human spaceflight from the U.S. state of Texas. Daemen, aged 18, and Funk, aged 82, became the youngest and oldest people to travel to space, respectively, until William Shatner took the record of oldest in space at age 90 on NS-18. The flight was approximately 10 minutes, and crossed the Kármán line. The mission became the first fully automated flight with civilian passengers, as well as the first multi-person, internationally recognized sub-orbital spaceflight.
• Passengers: Four passengers flew on Blue Origin NS-16. Originally, the anonymous winner (later revealed as Justin Sun) of a US$28 million auction held by Blue Origin in support of its Club for the Future program was to be the fourth person on RSS First Step. However, the anonymous winner had unspecified scheduling conflicts and was re-manifested for a future New Shepard flight; Oliver Daemen took the vacated position. Oliver's father Joes Daemen, the CEO of private equity firm Somerset Capital Partners, paid for the fourth seat; Joes had come second in the auction for the seat, so after the auction winner (Justin Sun) did not take the seat, it was passed onto Joes, who paid for the seat and gave it to Oliver.

External links:

• Wikipedia: Description mission
  
• Rocket launch: Description mission
  
• The Verge 20 July 2021: 210720-Blue Origin successfully sends Jeff Bezos and three others to space and back.