Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent six more people on a brief suborbital space trip today — including the director of Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch operations and training team.
The flight, known as NS-38, was Blue Origin’s 38th New Shepard mission overall, and the 17th mission that carried people.
Laura Stiles, who joined Blue Origin in 2013, was a late addition to the NS-36 crew. She filled a seat that was left open when one of the would-be spacefliers, Andrew Yaffe, had to bow out due to illness. Blue Origin said Yaffe will fly on a future New Shepard mission.
This was Stiles’ first trip to space, but she’s taken on several other roles associated with the New Shepard suborbital space program, including serving as a flight controller, a crew communicator and a trainer.
Stiles laughed for joy as she emerged from the New Shepard crew capsule at the end of the ride.
“There are so many people who have worked so hard for so many years with all their heart, all their soul, and I got to be there for everybody today,” she said. “The ride is incredible … We taught this training so many times, and it was so like … oh my God! The g’s, and the movement, and going through the clouds, and the Earth against the blackness. … We saw the moon, and things you can’t have pictured or imagined what it would be like to be up there.”
Today’s 10-minute flight was conducted at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. It followed Blue Origin’s standard procedure, with liftoff coming at 10:25 a.m. CT (8:25 a.m. PT). The reusable New Shepard booster sent the crew capsule to a height of 346,722 feet (65.7 miles or 105.7 kilometers) and then flew itself back to a landing pad.
Meanwhile, the crew got out of their seats to float in zero gravity and look out the windows at the black sky of space and the Earth below. They got back in their seats for a parachute-aided descent that ended with touchdown at 10:36 a.m. CT (8:36 a.m. PT).
Here are the five other crew members of NS-38:
- Tim Drexler, the former owner and CEO of Ace Asphalt of Arizona. After selling the company, Tim pursued his passion for aviation, becoming both a helicopter and airplane pilot.
- Linda Edwards, a retired obstetrician / gynecologist. She’s a wildlife advocate, award-winning equestrian and two-time breast cancer survivor.
- Alain Fernandez, an international real estate developer and investor. His early years as a scuba instructor across Europe and French Polynesia were marked by a life-altering diving accident at age 22, after which he rebuilt his career.
- Alberto Gutiérrez, an entrepreneur, technologist and world traveler who has visited more than 100 countries across all seven continents. In 2008, he began writing travel guides, which evolved into Civitatis, an online platform offering tours and travel activities.
- Jim Hendren, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former F-15 fighter pilot with multiple combat deployments. Hendren is the founder of Hendren Plastics Inc., a global manufacturing company, and has served in both chambers of the Arkansas Legislature.
Blue Origin has now flown 92 people, including six repeat customers, above the 100-kilometer Karman Line that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.
