Blue Origin’s sixth crewed spaceflight, NS-22, had the first Egyptian, Sarah Sabry, and the first Portuguese, Mario Ferreira, in space on 4 August, 2022.
Sarah Sabry is a mechanical/biomedical engineer and speaks English, French and Arabic.
There is controversy about her being the second African to travel to space after white South African tourist, Mark Shuttleworth, traveled to space with the Russians in 2002.
This is because Patrick Pierre Baudry, who was born in Douala, Cameroon, (of white French parents) traveled to space with NASA in 1985 under arrangements with the space agency of France.
He is claimed as the second French citizen in space after Jean-Loup Chrétien who first traveled to space on 24 June, 1982 with the Russians.
There is also controversy about Sarah Sabry being the first African woman in space.
The first black person in space is the Cuban, Latin American, Analdo Tamayo Mendez, with the Russians on 18 September, 1980.
The first African-American man in space is NASA’s Guion Bluford in 1983 and the first African-American woman in space is NASA’s Mae Jemison in 1992.
Jessica Watkins, the first African-American female astronaut to launch to the International Space Station, was on a six-month mission for NASA in the ISS, when Sarah Sabry made her suborbital flight.
All these examples are people of African descent and they traveled to (orbital) space earlier.
At least 15 African-Americans have traveled to space before 4 August, 2022.
British-American, Vanessa O’Brien, was also in the NS-22 flight with Sarah Sabry.
She made history after receiving the Guinness World Record on 12 June, 2020 for being the first woman to climb Mount Everest (the highest mountain in the world) and been to Challenger Deep (the deepest point in the ocean).
After being to the Earth’s highest and lowest points, she is adding having been to space to that record of Extreme Explorer’s Trifecta for a woman at 57 years of age on 4 August, 2022.
The first person – and man – to reach extremes on land, sea and air is Victor Vescovo of US, who climbed Mount Everest on 24 May 2010, dived to the Challenger Deep on 28 April, 2019 and crossed the 100-km Kármán Line in space with the Blue Origin’s NS-21 mission on 4 June, 2022.
The others are: wildlife photographer, Clint Kelly 111, who has filmed animals in all the continents; businessman Steve Young and Perfect Dude co-founder,Coby Cotton.
The six thrill seekers are now astronauts after their ten-minute suborbital flight through the edge of space and enjoyed few minutes of weightlessness before touching down by 15:48 WAT.
This mission apart from being Blue Origin’s sixth human spaceflight using the New Shepard rocket, is the third flight this year and the 22nd in its history.
photo credit: egyptian independent
BLUE ORIGIN’S FIFTH SPACEFLIGHT
Blue Origin’s fifth crewed spaceflight took place on 4 June, 2022.
It was earlier fixed for 20 May, 2022 but was postponed indefinitely, because the backup system did not meet the expectations of the aerospace company.
Blue Origin said the postponement was “in the abundance of caution.”
The “astronauts” for Blue Origin’s fifth human spaceflight, NS-21, are:
Evan Dick, who was in NS-19 expedition of 11 December, 2021.
Katya Echarreta, born in Guadalajara, Mexico, who became the first Mexican in space.
She is currently a postgraduate student in Johns Hopkins University.
The third is Hamish Harding, who holds a joint world record with Terry Witts for flying around the world, over the north and south poles, in an aircraft in 2019.
Victor Correa Hespantha, from Brazil who became the second Brazilian in space.
The fifth and sixth are Jaison Robinson, an award-winning sky diver and Victor Vescovo, an adventurer.
The amount each of them paid was not disclosed, but some of them were sponsored.
photo credit: blue origin
HUSBAND AND WIFE IN SPACE
Blue Origin’s fourth human spaceflight was on 31 March, 2022.
It was formerly scheduled for 29 March, 2022 but was postponed due to meteorologist’s prediction of high winds in the launch area.
Lift-off was by 14:58 WAT from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas and touchdown was 15:09 WAT.
This is the first time a husband and wife were in commercial spaceflight together and the second time a husband and wife were in space together.
Sharon and Marc Hagle of Tricor International, a residential and commercial property company, were in the flight together (the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, riding the Vostok 6 (a spacecraft) solo, on June 16, 1963 orbited the Earth 48 times and completed her mission after almost three days in space. She married a fellow cosmonaut, Andriyan Nikolayev, on 3 November, 1963 but they were in space at different times, not in space together).
The first husband and wife in space together are Mark Lee and Jan Davis in the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September, 1992.
They met during training and married secretly. When NASA knew, it was too late to substitute them.
The rules have been tightened since then by NASA, forbidding couples from being in the same spaceflight.
Saturday Night Live comedian, Peter Davidson, 28, was to be one of the six astronauts/passengers in the fourth Blue Origin crewed spaceflight.
He was said not to be available when the flight date was changed from 23 to 29 March, 2022.
Jim Kitchen took with him a small Ukrainian flag and his passport as evidence that he has traveled to that country and displayed both in space as a mark of solidarity.
Blue Origin was expected to announce another big name as a replacement for Peter Davidson before flight date.
Blue Origin’s three previous crewed flights had familiar people like company founder Jeff Bezos and aviator Wally Funk in the first; actor William Shatner on the second; and Good Morning America host Michael Strahan with father and son, Lane and Cameron Bess, on the third.
Some people in social media recommended rapper Kanye West, ex-husband of model Kim Kardashian, as replacement because Davidson is currently dating Kim Kardashian.
Blue Origin finally, announced its engineer, Gary Lai, as replacement.
This is its fourth crewed mission and its 20th overall.
The crew, like in previous flights, enjoyed weightlessness for a few minutes as the capsule took them to the edge of space and back in about 11 minutes.
photo credit: blue origin
Up: Lane Bess, Cameron Bess, Evan Dick;
Down: Dylan Taylor, Laura Shepard Churchley, Michael Strahan
photo credit: techcrunch
WILLIAM SHATNAR, 90, OLDEST PERSON IN SPACE
Never say late or too old as William Shatner makes history by heading to space on 13 October, 2021 (15:50 WAT) at the age of 90 years.
Shatnar, Captain Kirk in the Star Trek television series, becomes the oldest person ever in space with the 11-minute flight in an all-civilian Combo capsule, NS-18, powered by Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
The flight was earlier scheduled for 12th October, but was shifted by a day following meteorologists’ forecast of strong winds over the launch site in Van Horn, West Texas, USA.
William Shatnar, on the countdown few days to the blastoff, said he was a bit frightened but still wanted to go,
Shatnar was joined by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations.
The others are two corporate executives: Planet Labs’ Chris Boshuizen and Medidata’s Glen de Vries.
Shatner and his co-space tourists, enjoyed weightlessness for about three minutes at an altitude of 66 miles (108 kilometres).
In 1998, John Glenn, former astronaut in the US Mercury Shuttle programme, flew again on Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission at age 77, making him the oldest person ever in space then.
The record for the oldest person in space, just before Shatnar, was by 82-year-old Wally Funk (in the first fee-paying sub-orbital flight) on 20 July, 2021 in the same re-useable Combo capsule powered by Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Wally Funk retains her title as the oldest woman in space with that record flight which was with Blue Origin’s owner, Jeff Bezos, his brother, Mark, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen.
That flight made Daemen the youngest person in space.
It was the 16th (NS-16) Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch and the first to be crewed.
After that, there was an uncrewed flight, the 17th (NS-17), on 26 August, 2021.
Shatnar’s blast-off is the 18th launch (NS-18), and second crewed one, for the New Shepard rocket and Combo capsule.
All 18 Blue Origin’s spaceflights have, so far, been successful.
William Shatnar was decorated with his Astronaut’s badge by Jeff Bezos after the flight.
“Everybody in the world needs to do this,” a tearful Shatner, overwhelmed by his space experience, said. “Everybody in the world needs to see.”
However, as the space tourism race for the elderly picks momentum, some observers are asking questions as on the health and physical conditions of the astronauts.
Should something go wrong, how many G forces can they withstand, before it is corrected, without passing out?
Persons up to 40 years old are never picked as first-time astronauts.
Another issue is insurance cover for such trips: can it come under aviation?
Insurance for professional astronauts is covered by their governments and does not fall under an aviation policy.
Virgin Galactic has an indemnity clause in its space tourism flights.
Sad news came that one-time space tourist Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, were aboard a single-engine Cessna 172 airplane that went down on 11 November, 2021 in New Jersey, USA.
Both men died in the crash.
photo credit: phil walter, today, blue origin
BEZOS’ BLUE SHEPARD’S 17th MISSION TO SPACE
An uncrewed New Shepard rocket and capsule blasted-off to a 17th suborbital flight to the edge of space on 26 August, 2021.
The flight from the parent Blue Origin company’s launch site in West Texas, USA, carried a NASA payload to test technologies for future lunar landing craft.
It also had payload from academic institutions like the University of Florida.
The successful flight was much like the 16th flight except that it was uncrewed.
JEFF BEZOS’ 16th NEW ORIGIN FLIGHT TO SPACE
The richest man in the world, Billionaire Jeff Bezos, traveled to space on 20 July, 2021 in a Combo capsule powered by his Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
He’s was the first fee-paying sub-orbital flight with 82-year-old Wally Funk as the world’s oldest and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen as world’s youngest person in space.
Daemen replaced the auction winner who bid $28 million dollars for a seat in the flight but could not make it due to “scheduling conflicts.”
The fourth passenger is Jeff Bezos’ younger brother, Mark.
History with the world’s richest man with the oldest and youngest astronauts in the first fee-paying sub-orbital space flight on 20 July, 2021.
