Blue Origin flew the 100th woman in history into space

Aerospace company Blue Origin successfully conducted its tenth suborbital flight, during which six tourists visited the edge of outer space. The New Shepard spacecraft with the crew of the NS-28 mission took off from the Corn Ranch site near the city of Van Horn in west Texas at 10:31 local time (18:31 Moscow time). The entire flight lasted a little more than 10 minutes, of which the people spent approximately 4 minutes in weightlessness.

Image Source: Blue Origin

One of the crew members of the NS-28 mission was MIT engineer Emily Calandrelli, who became the 100th woman in space. “This is my dream. I studied aerospace engineering for almost ten years and then became the first woman in the United States to host a national science television show. Now I will be one of the first 100 women in space, showing girls everywhere that they, too, can reach the stars,” Calandrelli wrote on social networks. when it became known that she would be part of the crew of the NS-28 mission.

Joining Calandrelli on the flight were Marc Hagle and Sharon Hagle, a married couple who were part of Blue Origin’s second tourist flight of the NS-20 mission in 2022. Also on the flight were financial risk management specialist Austin Litteral, entrepreneur and former federal Marine, Fish and Wildlife inspector J.D. Russell, and Canadian investment firm CEO Hank Wolfond.

NS-28 mission crew

During the flight, the capsule with astronauts rose to a height of 106 km above the Earth’s surface, flying 4.8 km above the Karman line, which in a number of countries is the recognized boundary between the atmosphere of our planet and outer space. After this, the capsule activated its parachute system and made a soft landing, and the New Shepard booster, which lifted the crew into space, also made a vertical landing using its own engine.