Blue Origin sent the first passengers to space

“If you look at Branson’s spacecraft, he is really creating a transportation system very much like a commercial airline. You have to take off at the airport and then land at the airport,” Lugo said.

Lugo said that Bezos is what most aerospace engineers call a more traditional view of manned spacecraft. The entire launch and reentry process of Blue Origin took about 10 minutes. The crew launches from a capsule connected to the nose of the rocket. As the crew capsule continues to enter space, the rocket separates and returns to Earth, reaching a maximum height of 351,210 feet before starting to fall back to Earth, and then deploys the parachute to land.

Experts said that no matter how different they are, these two flights represent important milestones in future space flight.

“Like the pioneers of early airplanes, these vehicles are reimagining travel,” said Elaine Petro, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University.

Petro said that in addition to bringing humans closer to orbit, both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin can advance new methods of faster transcontinental travel, because the speed of both aircraft can reach four to five times that of ordinary airplanes. Times.

Petro is encouraged by the speed of progress she has seen in the industry. “Ten years ago, the Obama administration was promoting the expansion of the commercial launch vehicle industry. Now, two public space travel platforms have been flying manned last week, and SpaceX has signed a contract to send astronauts to the moon,” she said.

What’s next for Blue Origin?Although commercial space tourism has just started, Bezos hopes that by launching more flights, it can bring lower the cost So that in the next few decades, everyone has the opportunity to experience the beauty of life above the earth.