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Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, flew six people to the edge of space on Sunday for the first time since 2022.
The successful flight out of West Texas brings Blue Origin’s total humans flown to space to 37, and increases the New Shepard program’s total flights to 25.
New Shepard, which is Blue Origin’s only active rocket, was grounded in September of 2022 after a midflight failure on an uncrewed mission. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration required Blue Origin to complete 21 corrective actions to fix the problems that led to the failure, including an engine redesign, according to Reuters.
During Sunday’s flight, one of the three parachutes on the capsule that sits atop the rocket and carried the crew didn’t inflate during landing, which caused no safety concerns for the people on board but could draw more scrutiny from the FAA.
The mission, which from takeoff to landing lasted just under 10 minutes, was also a milestone for the humans on board. Former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was the first U.S. Black astronaut candidate from the 1960s, was on board, and at more than 90 years old became oldest person in space.
The flight reached a max velocity of 2,236 mph, and the crew capsule reached 347,464 feet.
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