Washington, (Samajweekly) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space firm Blue Origin’s Crew-3 flight that will carry daughter of the first American in space has been delayed till Saturday due to bad weather.
The flight — a first to carry six astronauts to space — was initially set for December 9. The last two missions carried only four.
“Due to forecasted winds on December 9 and 10, the New Shepard launch team has made the call to delay the launch of NS-19 to December 11,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The new liftoff is targeted for 8.45 a.m. CST (8.15 p.m. IST) from Launch Site One in West Texas.
The company said that the team has completed Flight Readiness Review and the vehicle has “met all mission requirements for launch”.
But, “weather remains as the only gating factor for launch”, it added.
The crew will include two honorary guests — ‘Good Morning America’ co-anchor Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly to space.
The other are four paying customers — space industry executive and philanthropist Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess, and Cameron Bess. Lane and Cameron Bess will become the first parent-child pair to fly in space, the company said.
The Crew-3 mission furthers the company’s vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.
It will be New Shepard’s third human flight this year, the sixth for the programme in 2021, and the 19th in its history.
Blue Origin’s blasted off its second human flight to space on October 13, with the original Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk (actor William Shatner) who became the oldest man ever to travel to space, along with NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, a co-founder of software company Medidata, and Audrey Powers, Vice President of missions and flight operations.
On July 20, Blue Origin carried its first human flight which included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Blue Origin’s first customer, Oliver Daemen.
In October, Bezos’ space firm has also announced plans to build a commercial space station called Orbital Reef by second half of this decade.
For the project Blue Origin has partnered with spaceflight company Sierra Space, a subsidiary of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University.
“The station will open the next chapter of human space exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a vibrant ecosystem and business model for the future,” the company had announced.
