A passenger on Blue Origin’s NS-22 spaceflight is heard shouting in the mission’s live broadcast today (August 4): “Woohoo! We’re not going to die.” “Our poor families!”
Shortly after landing in the West Texas desert – not dying – the crew of Blue Origin’s sixth manned space flight sat down to describe the experience.
The Blue Origin New Shepard carried six passengers on a journey that took about 10 minutes today and included several minutes in suborbital space. Even those few minutes were enough to change the lives of passengers forever.
Related: In pictures: William Shatner blasts off into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard
“It was more than anything I can describe in words. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it to be this sentimental,” said mechanical and biomedical engineer Sarah Sabry, the first person from Egypt to reach space. Sabri is also the founder of the Deep Space Initiative (DSI), a non-profit organization that aims to increase access to space research.
“I couldn’t stop crying,” Sabri added. “It was uncontrollable.” “It was just beautiful. And the thing, I think, the sense I got most from all of this is that I think everyone on earth needs to experience this. Everyone needs to see this, because everyone should be able to see this. .”
All I can think of is that those were the most fun 12 minutes of my life, as if they really were,” said Coby Cotton, co-founder of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect. “Just being there seeing, like, the Earth this way just made me feel really small in a really cool way.”
Cotton added that he had intended to use the flight to film content for his YouTube channel, but had forgotten all about it once the capsule was in space.
“I had all these plans, with all things YouTube, to do some stunts at the top,” Cotton said. “I brought these little table tennis rackets. Marty [Mário Ferreira] And I was going to play table tennis, and Steve and I were going to shoot a little basketball, and they didn’t leave my pocket. I mean, all I wanted to do was scavenge for food and fly around. I will not trade it. It was incredible.”
forever changed. #NS22 pic.twitter.com/UWrtHLiHrHAugust 4, 2022
Entrepreneur and investor Ferreira, the first person from Portugal to reach space, said he was “extremely surprised” by the height the New Shepard capsule had been able to reach. “I was expecting to see some bends in the ground and black, but it was black, much darker.” Ferreira added that it was “a great experience, and it was worth waiting 18 years for it, as I’ve been waiting.”
Technology pioneer Clint Kelly III, who is credited with starting the development of today’s driverless cars, said the experience made him reflect on the history of human exploration.
“It amazed me like everyone else,” Kelly said. “Going from blue to purple to black. And when that happened, I realized I was in a new place. So I was at the gate of the new frontier. So that must have been equivalent to the feeling some of my ancestors had in the 1700s when they stood on the Their Karman Line, which was the Appalachian Mountains looking forward to the new frontier, which became Kentucky.”
Not all passengers were boring. “I asked you all to wow me, and you guys have wowed me,” said communications director Steve Young. “I obviously had a very emotional touch from him, and I’ll leave it at that.”
For author and explorer Vanessa O’Brien, the experience made her reflect on how the human race might enter a new phase of exploration thanks to commercial space launch providers like Blue Origin. “If you ever wanted to go to space, you would have been training for decades; you might have gone into the military or had to get in a different way. But as the private space industry changes and the space industry is disrupted, millions of people will be able to live and work in space, Thanks to people like Blue Origin who made this possible.”
The NS-22 flight also had symbolic meaning for the many passengers on board the New Shepard capsule. For Sabri, the short spaceflight represented a historic moment for her nation. “I was thinking – like, I’d stop for a moment and really try to look out the window and think I’m bringing all of Egypt with me.”
Sabry added, “I knew a lot of Egyptians are watching the moment, and I was thinking, OK, so now they’re going to space… for the first time in history.”
For O’Brien, who took command of the United Nations Women’s flag (Opens in a new tab) With her in space, the flight was a symbol for advancing gender equality around the world. “This UN Women flag represents women all over the world, regardless of nationality, race and religion, this is for any woman who wants to go step by step fiercely. This is Blue Origin logo. So UN Women is also supportive of that and wants every woman to be in a better place. I am very proud to carry this flag with me today.”
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