Jeffrey, beam me up!
Blue Origin launched William Shatner from Blue Origin to 66.5 miles. He is best-known for his role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
Glen de Vries, a biotech entrepreneur, Blue Origins Vice- President of Mission & Flight Operations Audrey Powers and Chris Boshuizern, an Australian physicist/engineer, joined Shatner.
It was something they had never seen before, Shatner could be heard saying as he glided back down the surface, despite being an actor who has been to places no man has ever gone.
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This news comes after several reports have revealed the distressing working conditions of Blue Origins employees. These included allegations of sexual harassment and rampant sexism.
A late-last month essay by 21 former and current employees claimed that Blue Origin teams were overworked, leading to compromises in the safety of company's New Shepard spacecraft.
Today's launch went without a hitch. This was the second crewed mission for the New Shepard spacecraft of the company. It is a phallic capsule with six seats.
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos launched to space on July 1st.
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It is still unclear if that counts as space. Although the capsule technically crossed the Karman line (an arbitrarily drawn boundary internationally recognized as the boundary between space and the atmosphere), it was still several hundred miles from being able to reach stable orbit.
Today's passengers could enjoy several minutes of weightlessness caused by the capsule being lowered towards the ground.
The New Shepards reusable booster made it to the other side in one piece. This marks the fourth successful trip.
Today's launch, despite its success, comes at a difficult time for the company. Will Bezos' renewed commitment help to right the ship for his business in space tourism? Only time will tell.
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READ MORE: New Shepard Mission NS-18 [Blue Origin]
Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos sent a memo to Jeff Bezos that he quit Blue Origin, and sent him a reminder about how it destroyed the company.
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