Calandrelli is one of six passengers on the NS-28 flight, whose liftoff date has not yet been announced.

The six crewmembers for NS-28, Blue Origin's next suborbital space tourism mission. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

We now know who's going up on Blue Origin's next suborbital space tourism mission.

The six crewmembers for the flight include TV host and best-selling author Emily Calandrelli, known as "The Space Gal," as well as two repeat customers, Blue Origin announced in a statement today (Nov. 15).

The company has not yet revealed a target date for the mission, which is called NS-28 because it will be the 28th overall flight of Blue Origin's reusable New Shepard vehicle. NS-28 will lift off from Launch Site One, the company's West Texas spaceport.

Calandrelli is an MIT-educated engineer, science communicator and author. "With the premiere of 'Xploration Outer Space' (2014-present), she became the first American woman to be the sole host of a nationally broadcast science series," Blue Origin wrote in today's statement. "Through her activism, she helped write a bill to improve the TSA's treatment of breastfeeding mothers and started a campaign which improved parental leave in the aerospace industry."

The Hagles are a married couple who flew together on NS-20 in March 2022. Marc is president and CEO of the property development company Tricor International, and Sharon founded the education nonprofit SpaceKids Global.

Litteral is a risk management professional in the finance industry. He won his seat on NS-28 through the "Whatnot to the Moon" giveaway, which was sponsored by the livestream shopping platform Whatnot.

Russell is an entrepreneur who founded the company InfoHOA, according to Blue Origin. Wolfond is chairman and CEO of Bayshore Capital in Toronto.

Blue Origin, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has launched eight crewed New Shepard missions to date. These flights last a total of 10 to 12 minutes and carry people above the 62-mile-high (100 kilometers) Kármán Line, which many (but not all) people consider to be the boundary between Earth and space.

Blue Origin has not revealed its ticket prices. Its main competitor in the suborbital space tourism industry, Virgin Galactic, currently charges $450,000 per seat for a ride aboard its rocket-powered space plane.

Quelle: SC

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Update: 18.11.2024

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New Shepard's 28th Mission Includes Emily Calandrelli and Two Returning Customers

Blue Origin today revealed the six people flying on its NS-28 mission. The crew includes: Emily Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell, and Henry (Hank) Wolfond. Sharon and Marc Hagle are both flying on New Shepard for the second time. 

This mission will be the ninth human flight for the New Shepard program and the 28th in its history. To date, the program has flown 43 humans above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

 

Meet the Crew 

Emily Calandrelli 

Emily is an MIT engineer, Emmy-nominated TV host, and #1 NYTimes best-selling author known as @TheSpaceGal to her nearly three million followers. With the premiere of Xploration Outer Space (2014-present), she became the first American woman to be the sole host of a nationally broadcast science series. Through her activism, she helped write a bill to improve the TSA’s treatment of breastfeeding mothers and started a campaign which improved parental leave in the aerospace industry. Host of Netflix’s Emily’s Wonder Lab, Emily's Science Lab on YouTube, and author of nine books, Emily works to inspire young people, particularly little girls, to see themselves in STEM. 

Sharon Hagle 

Sharon is the founder of SpaceKids Global, a nonprofit she created in 2015 whose mission is to inspire elementary students to excel in STEAM education, ensuring girls are equally represented. SpaceKids hosts several annual challenges designed to inspire kids to pursue careers in the space industry, including national essay competitions, sending science projects to the International Space Station, and a partnership with Girl Scouts. SpaceKids also participates in Club for the Future’s Postcards to Space program. To date, Sharon has reached over 867,000 students globally. Sharon and her husband, Marc, first flew to space on NS-20 on March 31, 2022, becoming the first married couple to launch on a commercial space vehicle. 

Marc Hagle 

Marc is president and CEO of Tricor International, a residential and commercial property development corporation. Under his direction, the company has developed and owned more than 17 million square feet of properties across the United States, including shopping centers, warehouses, medical facilities, recreational facilities, drug stores, and office projects. Marc and his wife, Sharon, are avid philanthropists for numerous arts, sciences, health, and education-related charities. Marc first flew to space on NS-20 on March 31, 2022. 

Austin Litteral 

Austin works as a risk management professional in the financial services industry. He’s a husband and a father of two daughters. Austin spends his free time hiking in state parks with his family and cheering for the local sports teams. This trip will fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, having grown up with photos of NASA shuttle launches in his bedroom. Austin’s seat is sponsored by Whatnot, the largest livestream shopping platform in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Austin won his seat as part of the Whatnot to the Moon giveaway. 

James (J.D.) Russell 

J.D. is a serial entrepreneur and founder of InfoHOA, a leader in technology-based community management solutions. He was born into a military family at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ, and earned the Billy Mitchell Award in the Civil Air Patrol. Before starting his entrepreneur career, J.D. served as a federal law enforcement Marine, Fish, and Wildlife Game Warden. He founded the Victoria Russell Foundation to honor the memory of his deceased daughter. The foundation is dedicated to supporting children’s education and assistance to families of first responders, and is a proud partner with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to bring the love of reading to children by gifting books free of charge to children. 

Henry (Hank) Wolfond 

Henry is Chairman and CEO of Bayshore Capital in Toronto, Canada. A lifelong aviator, Henry holds an Airline Transport Pilots license for fixed wing aircraft and a Commercial Pilots License for Helicopters. He moonlights as a professional pilot on charter, medevac, and organ retrieval flights. Henry is the Chair of the Confronting Antisemitism Committee of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and currently serves on the boards of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC), the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation (UHN Foundation), and on the Board of Governors for Hillel Ontario. Henry is also a co-founder of the Autism Acceptance Project. 

The flight date will be announced soon. 

Quelle: Blue Origin

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Update: 19.11.2024

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Blue Origin set to launch next human flight on Friday from site near Van Horn

 

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Blue Origin announced that its next human flight is scheduled to lift off on Friday, Nov. 22 from its Launch Site One, which is about 25 miles north of Van Horn.

The launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Friday. The webcast on BlueOrigin.com will start at T-30 minutes.

This mission will be the ninth human flight for the New Shepard program and the 28th overall in its history. To date, the program has flown 43 people above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Additionally, Blue Origin released the NS-28 mission patch. A few of the symbols embedded include:

• The color pink and the girl in the signature pink overalls represents Emily Calandrelli, who will be on the flight. She is an MIT engineer, Emmy-nominated TV host and best-selling author

• The centerline in the “2” represents Sharon and Marc Hagle’s second flight on New Shepard.

• The stars represent Austin Litteral’s vision for people among the stars.

• The people at the bottom represents J.D. Russell’s hope for generations of people expanding their understanding of the world.

• The wolf in the crew capsule’s window represents Hank Wolfond. All of these people will be on the flight.

Quelle: Aol

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Update: 23.11.2024

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Blue Origin crew, including 100th woman to fly to space, lands safely

Emily Calandrelli, the 100th woman in space, looks down at Earth through a window aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard crew capsule on the NS-28 suborbital mission on Nov. 22, 2024. (Blue Origin)

 

"The Space Gal" is now the 100th woman to fly to space.
Emily Calandrelli, who adopted her online persona long before she booked a trip with Blue Origin, lifted off on Friday (Nov. 22) as one of the six passengers aboard the company's New Shepard rocket. The ten-minute suborbital flight — of which about four minutes were spent in space — launched and landed at Blue Origin's West Texas site.
"This is my dream," wrote Calandrelli on social media when it was announced she was going to be on Blue Origin's NS-28 crew. "I studied aerospace engineering for nearly a decade, then became the first woman in the U.S. with a national science [TV] show. It became my mission to bring representation to girls in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]."
"Now, I'll become one the first 100 women in space, showing girls everywhere that they too can reach the stars," she said.
The ninth human spaceflight in Blue Origin's history, the NS-28 crew also included Marc and Sharon Hagle, a married couple on their second Blue Origin launch after flying on the NS-20 mission in 2022; Austin Litteral, whose seat was sponsored by the livestream shopping platform Whatnot; J.D. Russell, an entrepreneur and former federal marine, fish and wildlife game warden; and Hank Wolfond, the CEO of an Canadian investment firm and private pilot.

New Shepard Mission NS-28. Click to enlarge video in new pop-up window. (Blue Origin)

The six civilian astronauts rode aboard the "RSS First Step," Blue Origin's first of two human-rated New Shepard spacecraft. Lifting off at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT or 9:30 a.m. CST local), the capsule reached an apogee of 347,661 feet (65.8 miles or 106 kilometers), flying 3 miles (4.8 km) above the Kármán line that serves as the internationally-accepted border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
"We got to weightlessness, I immediately turned upside down and looked at the planet and then there was so much blackness. There was so much space," said Calandrelli soon after the flight. "I didn't expect to see so much space, and I kept saying 'That's our planet! That's our planet!' It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born, and I was like, 'That's my baby! That's my baby!' I had that same feeling where I'm seeing it for the first time, and it was beautiful."
The gumdrop-shaped spacecraft then descended under parachutes to a "soft" landing, while the New Shepard propulsion module (or booster) that lofted the crew to altitude made an engine-assisted vertical touchdown.
Calandrelli is the 10th woman to fly on a suborbital spaceflight above the Karman line. She is the 21st woman to reach space on a suborbital trajectory including the astronauts who soared higher than the U.S.-recognized altitude of 50 miles (80 km) on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.
Overall, Calandrelli is now among the 94 men and women who have seen Earth from above 50 miles high, but who did not enter orbit. Including all of the people (men and women) who have flown into space on orbital or suborbital launches, she is the 714th space traveler (as tallied by the Association of Space Explorers).
A native of West Virginia, Calandrelli is the first woman and third person to represent her home state in space (after NASA astronauts Jon McBride and Drew Morgan).
"I can't believe that [a] girl from Morgantown, West Virginia, gets to represent the 100th woman in history to fly to space." wrote Calandrelli.
Although the price of her seat remains undisclosed, Calandrelli did say that she paid "just as much as the others" on New Shepard through the support of "20 to 30 organizations, brands and people." In return, she offered to do sponsored posts on her online channels and deliver speeches.
The first woman to fly into space (and first woman to enter orbit) was Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who launched in 1963. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg became the 50th woman to leave Earth's atmosphere in 2008.
The first woman to launch on a suborbital flight was Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, whose first of six SpaceShipTwo missions (to date) was in 2019. The first woman to fly on New Shepard was Wally Funk, an aviator and member of the so-called "Mercury 13," who underwent the same medical tests as NASA's first astronauts in the early 1960s.
Among the personal items that Calandrelli took with her to space was a montage showing photos of the 99 women who flew before her.
"I wanted to honor how they paved the way for women like me and how they've made it possible for the next generation of girls who want to reach for the stars to actually grab a few," she said.

A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifts off with the NS-28 crew, including the 100th women to fly into space, from the company's West Texas launch site on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (Blue Origin)

Quelle: CS

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Blue Origin launches ninth crewed New Shepard suborbital mission

The New Shepard crew capsule descends under parachutes near the end of the NS-28 mission Nov. 22. Credit: Blue Origin webcast

BERLIN — Blue Origin flew six people, including a pair of repeat customers and a science communicator, on the latest New Shepard suborbital spaceflight mission Nov. 22.

The New Shepard vehicle lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. The flight lifted off on schedule without any of the countdown holds common during previous flights.

The New Shepard capsule R.S.S. First Step, making its 11^th flight, landed about 10 minutes after liftoff, two and a half minutes after the booster landed, completing its 12^th flight. The capsule reached a peak altitude of 107 kilometers above sea level, Blue Origin reported after the flight.

The six-person crew of NS-28 included two people who previously flew on New Shepard. Marc and Sharon Hagle, husband and wife, flew together on the NS-20 mission in March 2022, the fourth crewed flight of the vehicle.

Also on board was Emily Calandrelli, an author, television show host and online science communicator. In a social media post, she said she would become the 100^th woman to go to space. That number, however, includes nine women who have flown on Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceflights that passed the 50-mile (80.5-kilometer) altitude used by U.S. government agencies for awarding astronaut wings but fell short of the 100-kilometer Kármán Line used by Blue Origin as the demarcation of space. Blue Origin, in its webcast of the launch, did not mention that milestone when discussing Calandrelli.

The other three people on NS-28 were Austin Litteral, who works in risk management in the financial industry and won his seat in a contest by an online shopping platform; James (J.D.) Russell, a technology entrepreneur; and Henry (Hank) Wolfond, chairman and chief executive of Canadian investment firm Bayshore Capital.

NS-28 with the ninth crewed flight by New Shepard and the third this year. It was also the second flight in one month after the uncrewed NS-27 flight Oct. 23. That mission was the first flight of a new crew capsule and booster that Blue Origin plans to use for future crew flights to provide “expanded flight capacity to better meet growing customer demand,” the company said at the time.

Quelle: SN