Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and his three crew are embarking on a 20-year mission: flying into space.

On Tuesday, Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, veteran pilot Wolli Fink and Dutch student Oliverda made a 10-minute suborbital flight on a New Shepard rocket, which the company hopes will become a major player in the commercial sector. A huge leap. Space travelling.

Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, told Al Jazeera: “It’s exciting to be today, and I’m proud of the Blue team.” “After 15 flights in New Shepard, we are ready for our first crew Flying, including our first paying customer Oliver Daemen.”

This flight is a huge milestone for Blue Origin, founded by Bezos in 2000, because Tuesday’s launch will mark the company’s New Shepard spacecraft for the first time.

After taking off from the launch site in West Texas, the aircraft will climb to an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the earth, crossing the official space boundary. The departure time is set at 8 am local time (13:00 GMT).

Bezos and other passengers will experience approximately three minutes of weightlessness and magnificent views through the largest window ever in the company-owned space capsule.

After a brief period of free floating, the crew will fasten their seat belts again, then return to the lower atmosphere and parachute down.

This flight is full of other firsts: at the age of 82, Funk will become The oldest person ever to fly in spaceAnd 18 years old, the gate Will be the youngest.

Apollo inspiration

Bezos has been open to space fascination since he was a child, saying that the Apollo landing on the moon changed his life and inspired him to pursue space travel.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos (center), his brother Mark Bezos (left), Oliver Daymen (right) and Wally Fink (sitting) will make their debut on Tuesday Experience about three minutes of weightlessness during space flight [File: Blue Origin via AP]

To pay tribute to the mission, Blue Origin’s first manned mission will be launched on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Bezos also named his new Shepard rocket after Alan Shepard, the first American to fly into space.

On the 60th anniversary of Shepard’s mission in May, Bezos announced that the last seat on Tuesday’s flight would be auction.

The winning bidder’s bid was $28 million, however, the anonymous winner chose to reschedule future flights.

Bezos then chose Daemen, who was runner-up in the auction, as the fourth crew member. The company has not disclosed the amount of his bid.

Bezos had previously announced that he had hired Fink to participate in the flight. As a pioneering pilot, she received astronaut training in NASA’s Women’s Space Program in the early 1960s.

Although she passed all the tests that NASA’s original astronaut team went through, she was denied the opportunity to become an astronaut because of her gender.

Now Fink will realize her dream and break the record of American astronaut John Glenn as the oldest person to fly into space. (Glenn was 77 years old when he took the space shuttle Discovery in 1998.)

Fly me to carmen line

According to company officials, the team successfully completed a “flight readiness review” for the launch over the weekend and found that both the new Shepard rocket and the space capsule were ready to fly. Meteorological officials also said that the forecast launched on Tuesday looks promising.

Blue Origin’s new Shepard rocket is designed to fly multiple times and return to Earth [Courtesy: Blue Origin]

Steve Lanius, the chief flight director of the mission on Tuesday, said that each passenger also completed 14 hours of flight training before launch.

“Our training program is fully compliant with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] It meets the requirements of the crew and space participants,” Lanius told Al Jazeera. “It consists of two days of 14 hours, including classroom teaching, demonstrations and exercises in the training cabin. “

All participants were guided by normal procedures, what to do in an emergency, and how to safely return to their seats in zero gravity. Lanius said that the training ended with five different training scenarios and final exams. Participants can only get the green light to start after their final report has been reviewed.

The New Shepard Crew Module is designed to descend through the atmosphere and land on a parachute in the desert [File: Blue Origin via AP]

This experience will definitely be an unforgettable experience. Once the rocket reaches a certain altitude, it will separate from the spacecraft and return to Earth, where it will land on the designated landing pad of the Blue Origin facility.

At the same time, the new Shepard capsule will allow passengers to enjoy the magnificent views of the earth while experiencing weightlessness and floating in the cabin.

After about three minutes, the crew will fasten their seat belts and prepare for landing. When spacecraft pass through the atmosphere and land in the desert on a parachute, they will experience a force of about 5G.

If everything goes according to plan, this flight will be the first of many flights, because Blue Origin plans to carry out at least two more manned flights this year.

Blue Origin also did not disclose the pricing of any upcoming flights, but according to Smith, the plan will follow whatever prices the market will bear, likely to exceed $1 million.

However, Smith said, “The price of early flights is very good.”