Blue Origin, the private launch company owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, will shortly be launching six space tourists on a suborbital trip to the edge of space. The mission, called NS-21, was originally scheduled for last month but had to be delayed due to technical issues. Now, the launch will go ahead from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas.
The launch will be livestreamed by Blue Origin, and we’ve got the details so you can watch along at home.
The six space tourists who will fly on the mission include investor Evan Dick who previously flew on mission MS-19, former NASA engineer Katya Echazarreta, pilot Hamish Harding, engineer Victor Correa Hespanha, and business founders Jaison Robinson and Victor Vescovo.
Echazarreta is a science communicator who hosts shows on YouTube and CBS with an aim to increase representation of women and minorities in STEM fields. She worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on five missions, including the Perseverance rover currently exploring Mars and the Europa Clipper mission set to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Now she is working on her master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at John Hopkins University. She will become the first Mexican-born woman in space, and the youngest American in space to date, and her place on the mission was sponsored by nonprofit space organization Space for Humanity.
“I dedicate this flight to you, Mexico,” she wrote on Twitter.
How to watch the launch
The flight, which will be Blue Origin’s fifth with its New Shepard program, will last around 10 minutes and will take the tourists to the Karman line, which is one version of the boundary of space and which is located at 100 kilometers (62 miles) above average sea level. The New Shepard rocket will carry a capsule that will separate from the booster around three minutes after liftoff, then head to the boundary of space, before returning to Earth slowed by parachutes.
The launch is scheduled for 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. PT) on Saturday, June 4. The livestream will begin shortly, at 8:20 a.m. ET (5:20 a.m. PT). You can watch along either by using the video embedded near the top of this page or by heading to Blue Origin’s YouTube channel.
