-As Ikorodu – born Owolabi Salis sets record
Source: abcNews: https://abcnews.go.com/US/blue-origin-successfully-completes-13th-crewed-suborbital-flight/story?id=123320375
Blue Origin launched its 13th crewed mission to the edge of space on Sunday morning, sending six civilian astronauts, including a married couple, past the Karman line and back in a little over 10 minutes.
The private space program’s reusable New Shepard booster rocket ignited and cleared the launch pad tower in the West Texas desert and took about three-and-a-half minutes to travel the 62 miles to the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
The trip — dubbed NS-33 for the 33rd New Shepard mission — was originally planned for June 21 but had to be scrubbed twice due to the weather, Blue Origin officials said.
Passengers on the flight included Allie Kuehner, an environmentalist and conservationist, and Carl Kuehner, chairman of the real estate development company Building and Land Technology, who became the second married couple to travel aboard Blue Origin on the round-trip to the Karman line.
The trip marked the third suborbital human spaceflight for the Blue Origin New Shepard program since April 13, when an all-female crew that included singer Katy Perry, CBS News journalist Gayle King, and aviator Lauren Sanchez, who’s now the wife of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos following their marriage Friday in Venice, Italy.
Other space tourists aboard Sunday’s Blue Origin flight were Leland Larson, a philanthropist and former CEO of an Oregon school bus transportation company; Freddie Rescigno Jr., president of a Georgia electrical cable company and a competitive golfer; and Jim Sitkin, a California attorney. Also on the flight was Owolabi Salis, an attorney and a financial consultant who became the first Nigerian-born person to go to space.
The group lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, about 20 miles north of the West Texas town of Van Horn, at approximately 10:38 am ET.
Sunday’s flight lasted about 10 minutes and 33 seconds, allowing the civilian crew a chance to unbuckle from their seats and briefly experience weightlessness in the capsule.
Salis, before the trip, said that the mission was “more than just a trip into space”.
He described it as a “spiritual journey, a call to inspire future generations”.
