They bring 6 tourists back into space aboard a New Shepard rocket

Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos’ space company has once again successfully completed a space trip with eight tourists. Among them, Karsen Kitchen becomes the youngest woman to cross the Kármán lineagethe boundary between the atmosphere and space, about 100 km. The NS-26 mission successfully took off to the cheers of the passengers that could be heard during the airline’s live broadcast. The takeoff took place at 15:09 this Thursday (mainland Spanish time).

The company closed its doors last year after months of bad luck. The NS24 mission carried NASA payloads into space and showed that Blue Origin can to leave without any problems. Later, manned missions such as NS-25 and the last NS-26 accelerate this new tourist travel market to transform civilians into astronauts with a short 10 minute trip.

On the previous flight, NS-25, former U.S. Air Force Captain Ed Dwight established himself as the oldest person to travel into space; the 90-year-old veteran nearly became the first African-American to travel into space decades before that milestone was reached. Now, NS-26 included a senior at the University of North Carolina, the youngest person to travel to this space frontier at 21 years old.

Karsen researched radio astronomy at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia and worked at UNC’s Morehead Planetarium. He also delved into centrifugal force training, experienced weightlessness during a weightless flight and is currently training to obtain his diving license.

He was joined by a large group of entrepreneurs who have dedicated their lives to entrepreneurship and research, such as Dr. Eiman Jahangir, a cardiologist whose headquarters is sponsored by MoonDAO, an organization whose mission is to accelerate a multi-planetary future.

The journey, as usual, lasts only 10 minutes. The apogee – the climax of the mission – is reached when the clock shows 4 minutes after takeoff and, if all goes as planned, It crosses the Kármán line located at an altitude of 100 kilometers.

This Kármán line is an international scientific convention that represents the boundary between the atmosphere and space. Anyone who has reached a higher level can consider himself an astronaut. The capsule then returns to Earth and lands gently on the surface using the ship’s parachute system, safely recovering the crew.

Given the fear of an intensification of space tourism and its polluting consequences, Blue Origin recalls that 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reusedincluding the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear and parachutes. The New Shepard’s engine runs on high-efficiency liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Additionally, during flight, the only byproduct is water vapor with no carbon emissions.