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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches 6 passengers on sub-orbital trip to space and back
Blue Origin launched six passengers, including a NASA-sponsored researcher and the youngest woman to fly in space, on a sub-orbital trip out of the lower atmosphere Thursday in the company’s eighth crewed spaceflight.
University of Florida researcher Rob Ferl, philanthropist Nicolina Elrick, adventurer Eugene Grin, Vanderbilt University cardiologist Elman Jahangir, American-Israeli entrepreneur Ephraim Rabin and University of North Carolina senior Karsen Kitchen blasted off from Jeff Bezos’ west Texas launch site at 9:07 a.m. EDT.
Blue Origin
Powered by a single-stage, hydrogen-fueled rocket, the New Shepard crew capsule was propelled straight up and through a deck of clouds, disappearing from view as it was boosted to a maximum velocity of 2,238 mph before the launcher’s BE-3 engine shut down.
At that moment, the crew began enjoying about three minutes of weightlessness, along with spectacular views of the Earth below, as the capsule coasted up to an altitude of about 345,000 feet, or 65 miles, and then arced over to begin the long fall back to Earth.
NASA and the U.S. Air Force consider 50 miles to be the somewhat arbitrary “boundary” of space, the point above which an aircraft’s wings, rudder and other aerosurfaces are no longer effective. The internationally recognized boundary is 12 miles higher.
By either yardstick, the New Shepard capsule easily passed into the lower reaches of space as it arced through the high point of its trajectory.
Blue Origin
After sending the crew capsule on its way, the reusable booster fell back to the Texas launch site, touching down safely on a concrete landing pad.
The New Shepard capsule took a bit longer to come down, lowered to the surface under three large parachutes for a relatively gentle touchdown at 9:17 a.m. From launch to landing: 10 minutes and eight seconds.
The crew members were ecstatic when they left the spacecraft a few minutes later, embracing family members and friends with broad smiles and exclamations.
Ferl is a professor at the University of Florida who carried out NASA-funded research during the New Shepard flight to learn more about how genes react during the transition to and from weightlessness.
“The ride was incredibly smooth; I was so impressed with the ride up,” Ferl said after landing. “But being there, the darkness of space, there’s no way to talk about it. There’s no way to talk about how impressive space is and the Earth below. The science went well, everything worked like it was supposed to. … It couldn’t have been a better experience.”
Blue Origin
Kitchen, at 21 the youngest woman to fly in space, was equally excited, repeatedly hugging her father Jim, a University of North Carolina professor and veteran of an earlier Blue Origin flight in 2022.
“When she was a little girl, she told me definitively she was going to be an astronaut,” the elder Kitchen said before launch. “It’s emotional. It’s emotional to see someone that’s wanted to go to space and it’s actually a dream come true. To be able to have that dream and have it fulfilled is amazing.”
Blue Origin builds and markets the New Shepard rocket and spacecraft for space tourism, human-tended research and unpiloted experiments. The company also is building a large orbit-class rocket, called the New Glenn, that will compete with SpaceX’s Falcon-family of boosters, designed to deliver satellites and other payloads to orbit.
The first New Glenn rocket is tentatively scheduled for launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as early as Oct. 13 to boost NASA’s two ESCAPADE probes to Mars to learn more about how the solar wind interacts with the red planet’s atmosphere.
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A picture is emerging of the suspect who officials say pointed a high-powered rifle at former president Donald Trump on a Florida golf course Sunday afternoon.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was armed with an AK-47-style rifle and was 300-500 yards away from Trump when members of the former president’s Secret Service detail spotted him, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. Routh was a few holes ahead of where the president was golfing at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, officials said.
Members of the Secret Service detail opened fire at Routh, according to law enforcement officials. It’s not clear if Routh fired any shots. Bradshaw said a witness saw a man jumping out of the bushes and fleeing in a black Nissan. The car was pulled over and the driver detained and identified as the suspect. Law enforcement found the rifle, a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera in the bushes at the scene.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are investigating the incident, which the FBI said “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
As the investigation continues, here’s what we know about Routh:
Stephany Matat / AP
A decades-long criminal history
Routh’s most recent address is listed in Hawaii, but he spent most of his life in North Carolina, according to property records. Routh owned Camp Box Honolulu, a shed-building company, according to his LinkedIn profile. The account also says that he studied at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and graduated in 1998.
Records show his problems with the law go back to the 1990s and include less serious charges, like writing bad checks. But in 2002, he was charged with a felony — possession of a weapon of mass destruction — according to North Carolina Department of Corrections records.
Between 2002 and 2010, Routh was also charged with a number of misdemeanors, including a hit-and-run accident, resisting arrest and a concealed weapons violation, records show.
Suspect criticized Trump online
Routh voted Democratic in the 2024 primary election in North Carolina, and he voted in person, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. He appears to be registered as an unaffiliated voter.
His X account, which has now been suspended, included a number of posts about Trump.
“@realDonaldTrump While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he wrote in a June 2020 post. “I will be glad when you gone.”
He also referenced the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in multiple posts, suggesting that President Biden and Vice President Harris should visit the injured and attend the funeral of the Pennsylvania rally-goer who was killed.
A Facebook account under Routh’s name was no longer online on Sunday evening.
Ukraine supporter
Routh was passionate about fighting for Ukraine, even traveling overseas to fight in the country’s war against Russia in 2022.
“I am coming to Ukraine from Hawaii to fight for your kids and families and democracy.. I will come and die for you,” he wrote on X.
In one post on LinkedIn, he shared a photo of himself in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
A CBS News review of Routh’s social media shows his pro-Ukraine views seeped into his public statements as well. He urged people, even those who didn’t have military skills, to take up arms for Ukraine. He was interviewed by several news organizations, including The New York Times and Semafor in 2023, and Newsweek Romania in 2022. He was quoted about his efforts to recruit volunteer fighters to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, though it wasn’t clear whether he had succeeded.
“This is about good versus evil,” he told Newsweek Romania.
contributed to this report.
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