Blue Origin Advances Inclusive Space Tourism

The landmark suborbital mission reflects the accessibility and inclusivity of the future of commercial space travel.

Blue Origin has made a name in human spaceflight, as it has successfully launched and brought the first wheelchair user back to space. The company's New Shepard rocket took off from West Texas at 9.15 a.m. EST and carried aerospace engineer Michi Benthaus and five other members of the crew on a short suborbital flight.

Benthaus is an engineer with the European Space Agency and had become the first wheelchair user to cross the internationally recognized boundary of space. The mission highlighted the expansion of commercial programs to broaden participation in space apart from the astronauts who are part of the professional astronaut corps. After a relatively minor technical issue the week before, the launch went smoothly and led to building up confidence in Blue Origin's operational readiness.

The NS-37 mission was the one that launched the crew above the 62-mile-high Karman line for several minutes of weightlessness and panoramic views of the Earth in space against a black background, which were later followed by a parachute-assisted landing. Fellow passengers were investors, entrepreneurs and veteran space professionals, including Hans Koenigsmann, a former executive with SpaceX, who backed the safety of the mission and reliability.

With reusable rockets and capsules New Shepard flights are normally 10 to 12 minutes in length. To date, 17 crewed missions have flown 92 passengers, a product of increasing demand for space tourism. The flight communicates an obvious message: access to space is widening, and physical limitations are out of the way as commercial spaceflight keeps undergoing evolution.