First crewed flight of New Shepard

After completing 15 successful uncrewed flights with New Shepard rocket, proving its safety and reliability Blue Origin finally launched astronauts to space and back.

NS-16 crew:

• Jeff Bezos – Founder of Blue Origin
• Mark Bezos – Bezos’s brother
• Wally Funk – pilot, instructor, NTSB investigator, a member of what was unofficially known as the “Mercury 13”
• Oliver Daemen – the son of the second-highest bidder in the auction for a seat on this flight.

Wally Funk is now the oldest person to fly to space (82 years old) and Oliver Daemen from the Netherlands is now the youngest person to fly to space (18 years old).

The New Shepard capsule and booster coasted together until capsule separated at around T+3 minutes. The capsule passed the Karman line at 100 kilometers around T+3:45 and reached apogee of about 105 kilometers. The crew had a great view from the biggest windows in space.

After experiencing about 4 minutes in zero gravity, capsule with crew landed safely back under 3 parachutes. New Shepard booster also landed successfully on the landing pad after flying for fourth time.