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Here's what to expect on today's flight Blue Origin is preparing to send its next crew of tourism passengers to the edge of space — and it’s a star-studded event. The group includes “CBS Mornings” cohost Gayle King, pop star Katy Perry, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientist and CEO of STEMBoard Aisha Bowe, and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer who has conducted nonprofit work with The Allen-Stevenson School , The High Line and Hudson River Park . The Blue Origin flight today will go up and come right back down, in less time — about 10 minutes — than it takes most people to get to work.
This is a suborbital flight, which means the New Shepard vehicle will not travel fast enough or at the right angle to enter orbit around Earth. However, it will travel more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Earth, which is widely considered to be the edge of outer space, and reach speeds topping about 3,500 kilometers per hour (2,300 miles per hour), which is about three times the speed of sound. The New Shepard crew capsule will launch atop a small rocket.
After the engine burns through most of its fuel, the capsule will separate from the rocket, allowing the spacecraft to briefly continue upward before the capsule almost hovers at the top of its flight path, giving the passengers a few minutes of weightlessness. Here’s a look at the expected flight path :.
