World’s richest man Jeff Bezos to fly to space today: Details

World’s richest man and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is all set to fly off on an 11-minute trip to the edge of space aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket at 6:30 pm IST on Tuesday, July 20.

82-year-old pilot Wally Funk, 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen, and 53-year-old Mark Bezos, younger brother of Jeff Bezos, will be accompanying the billionaire on his adventure. Ahead of his flight, Jeff Bezos told the “CBS This Morning” program on Monday that he is not nervous, but is rather excited. “People keep asking if I am nervous. I am not really nervous, I am excited. I am curious. I want to know what we are going to learn. We have been training. This vehicle is ready. This crew is ready. This team is amazing. We just feel really good about it,” he stated.

As per Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith’s statement, “lift-off is at 8:00 am Central Time (1300 GMT) from a remote facility in the west Texas desert called Launch Site One, some 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of the nearest town, Van Horn. Weather conditions currently appear favourable and the event will be live-streamed, starting 90 minutes before launch.” 

“After lift-off, New Shepard will careen towards space at speeds exceeding 2,300 mph (3700 kph) using a liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine whose only byproduct is water vapour. The capsule separates from its booster, and when it gets high enough, the astronauts unbuckle and experience weightlessness for three to four minutes.”

A live online broadcast of the launch will be provided by Blue Origin on its website (https://www.blueorigin.com/). The webcast by the company will begin around 5pm in India. The launch is scheduled to start at 6.30pm.