Blue Origin paid tribute to the people of Ukraine.
Six people flew to suborbital space on the fourth crewed flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle. Jim Kitchen carried a symbol of support and solidarity for Ukraine, which Russia invaded on February 24, with him on the plane.
Kitchen told Space.com that he brought the Ukrainian and American flags with him in his passport and released them to let them know that his heart is with them.
Blue Origin has 6 spaceflyers on their mission.
Kitchen did not bring just one passport on the trip, he brought 10 of them, which bear the stamps of visits to all 193 countries recognized by the United Nations. According to Blue Origin, Kitchen is the first person to go to space and also make international rounds on Earth.
Kitchen said that the view from high above shows Earth as it really is, a beautiful single entity with not a border in sight.
He said that we are all just people and that we are governed by different leadership structures and different governments. I wanted to let them know that we were aware of what was happening around them, and that I was just expressing some humanity on this flight.
Kitchen was joined on the flight by four other paying customers: businessman Marty Allen; Sharon Hagle, founder of the education nonprofit SpaceKids Global; her husband and the president and CEO of the property-development company Tricor International; and George Nield.
The first married couple to fly together on a private spaceship was Sharon and Marc Hagle. Mark Lee and Jan Davis were the first astronauts to reach space together, when they flew on the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
Gary Lai, the chief architect of the New Shepard system, was the sixth passenger on Thursday. Pete Davidson backed out of the mission after it was delayed from its original March 23 target date.
It was very special for Lai.
It was a joy to experience it myself, and I thought it was more intense than I thought.
The New Shepard consists of a rocket and capsule. The capsule lands softly under the parachutes after the rocket comes back to Earth. The New Shepard flights take about 10 to 11 minutes to complete.
Passengers are able to see Earth against the blackness of space for three to four minutes. Blue Origin has not said how much it charges for a seat.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There, a book about the search for alien life. You can follow him on social media. Follow us on social media.
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