Blue Origin’s capsule succeeds in its second manned space flight

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The Blue Origin capsule landed after it flew in a matter of minutes Wednesday in Texas. On board were 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner and three other civilians, including two entrepreneurs who paid for the trip organized by billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company.

The trip will have lasted barely a few minutes. The Blue Origin capsule with four passengers on board, including William Shatner who played Captain Kirk in the cult series “Star Trek”, landed Wednesday, October 13 in West Texas.

At 90, the Canadian actor became the oldest person to reach the final frontier. It was the second manned rocket flight from the company of billionaire Jeff Bezos, which intends to establish itself as a key player in the coveted space tourism sector.

On board were also two entrepreneurs who paid for the trip, and a manager from Blue Origin.

The founder of Amazon was present at the launch on Wednesday morning. He had shaken hands with each of the passengers before they boarded the rocket, named New Shepard, and had himself closed the capsule hatch.

Jeff Bezos also made the trip to space aboard this vehicle in July.

The rocket took off vertically on Wednesday, then the capsule broke off in flight, and thus propelled, passed the Karman line which marks, at an altitude of 100 km, the border of space according to the international convention. It then began a free fall to fall back to Earth, slowed down in particular by three huge parachutes.

The flight lasted only about ten minutes.

The “Star Trek” series, broadcast from 1966 for only three seasons, chronicled the adventures of the USS Enterprise spacecraft, launched on an interstellar exploration mission. The series has become cult for science fiction enthusiasts, including Jeff Bezos. Released at the time of the beginnings of the space conquest, before the Americans set foot on the Moon, it had also helped to arouse the interest of the nation and the world for the NASA program.

With AFP