Billionaire Jeff Bezos’s rocket company received full approval for its crewed flight into space on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved a modified license allowing aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin to send Bezos and three other passengers into suborbital space from a Texas launchpad on July 20.
“On July 12, the FAA approved the Blue Origin license modification to carry humans on the New Shepard launch system,” the agency said in a statement Monday.
RICHARD BRANSON OF VIRGIN GALACTIC BECOMES FIRST BILLIONAIRE IN SPACE
The 57-year-old mind behind Amazon, his brother, 82-year-old aviation expert Wally Funk, and a yet-to-be-named auction winner who paid $28 million to join the launch are set to fly 62 miles above Earth inside Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
#NewShepard is go for launch on July 20 for #NSFirstHumanFlight. This is the 16th flight and first with astronauts on board. Watch live at https://t.co/7Y4TherpLr. Coverage starts at 6:30 am CDT / 11:30 UTC. pic.twitter.com/hYv68UlCqm
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 12, 2021
Once the rocket reaches space, the crew capsule will detach from the rocket’s body, allowing the passengers to see the Earth while feeling weightless. The module’s booster is then expected to return to Earth and land vertically. The plan is to have the crew capsule float back to the surface using parachutes.
The pending mission will be July’s second launch of a wealthy business magnate into space. British billionaire Richard Branson completed a successful mission to space on July 11, operated by Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The company’s Unity 22 mission, which received its own FAA approval in June, took off at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, giving Branson and three other Virgin Galactic employees their own flight to the edge of space. The space plane landed at the same location in New Mexico from where it launched.
“Welcome to the dawn of a new space age,” Branson said upon his return, calling the trip “more magical than I ever imagined.”
Branson’s flight may have beaten Bezos’s mission by a couple of days, but the Amazon founder’s vessel will attempt to fly higher than the Karman line, which is the internationally held definition of space 100 kilometers above the Earth.
