Overview
- Blue Origin launched New Shepard NS-37 on Saturday from Van Horn, Texas, completing an approximately eleven-minute suborbital flight.
- Michaela Benthaus, an ESA engineer who uses a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury, became the first such person to travel to space.
- Former SpaceX engineer Hans Königsmann was the second German on board, joining four U.S. entrepreneurs for the largely automated flight.
- An earlier attempt was scrubbed less than a minute before liftoff on Thursday due to an issue flagged by built-in preflight checks.
- The capsule briefly crossed the Kármán line for a short period of weightlessness on Blue Origin’s 16th crewed trip, as debate continues over scientific value, environmental impact, and exclusivity; the company has flown about 80 paying customers and does not disclose ticket prices.