Blue Origin sets date for next crewed space trip, names 2 passengers

News
By
published

Blue Origin's second crewed flight will blast off Oct. 12.

Chris Boshuizen (left) and Glen de Vries (right) are two of the four space tourists scheduled to fly on Blue Origin's second crewed flight on Oct. 12. 2021
Chris Boshuizen (left) and Glen de Vries (right) are two of the four space tourists scheduled to fly on Blue Origin's second crewed flight on Oct. 12. 2021 (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Blue Origin will send its second batch of space tourists on a suborbital flight on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

The company has revealed two of the four crewmembers will be Chris Boshuizen, co-founder of Earth observation company Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at French software company Dassault Systèmes. The remaining two crewmembers will be announced in the coming days, Blue Origin said in a statement. 

The NS-18 mission, the 18th flight overall for the New Shepard rocket, will lift off from Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. CDT or 1330 GMT) on Oct. 12. In addition to the four passengers, the flight will carry thousands of postcards from Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which aims to inspire future generations to pursue careers in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Blue Origin will livestream the flight with coverage scheduled to start an hour before lift-off. 

In photos: Blue Origin's 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos

"This is a fulfillment of my greatest childhood dream," Boshuizen, who started his career as a cubesat engineer at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said in the statement. "More importantly, though, I see this flight as an opportunity to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM and catalyze the next generation of space explorers. After all, our future of life in space is in their very capable hands." 

During the approximately 11-minute flight, the capsule with the crew on board will cross the so-called Karman Line, the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, at the altitude of about 60 miles (100 kilometers). The space tourists will enjoy about 3 minutes of weightlessness around the peak altitude. 

Related stories:

 — What are the chances that Jeff Bezos won't survive his flight on New Shepard?
— As space billionaires take flight, 'the right stuff' for space travel enters a new era
— Do space tourists really understand the risk they're taking? 

"I've spent my entire career working to extend people's lives," De Vries said in the statement. "However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive. Furthermore, astronauts can experience the 'overview effect,' gaining a new perspective on how fragile and precious our planet, those resources and our civilization are."

This mission follows Blue Origin's successful first human flight on July 20, which included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Blue Origin's first paying customer, Oliver Daemen. Blue Origin is selling tickets via its website, however, the company has not yet made public the price tag of its space trips.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tereza Pultarova
Tereza Pultarova
Senior Writer

Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.