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Space

With Flight of Six More Tourists to Space, Blue Origin Carries 75th Passenger (space.com) 34

Posted by EditorDavid from the filling-the-space dept.
"Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched a crypto billionaire and five other people to the final frontier on Sunday," reports Space.com: The mission — known as NS-34, because it was the 34th overall flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle — lifted off from the company's West Texas spaceport at 8:43 a.m. EDT (1243 GMT; 7:43 a.m. local time in West Texas).

The highest-profile NS-34 passenger was Justin Sun, a 34-year-old billionaire who founded the blockchain platform Tron. In June 2021, Sun won an auction for a seat aboard the first-ever crewed flight of New Shepard, plunking down $28 million. [Sun was unable to take that flight due to a scheduling conflict, but Blue Origin says "the proceeds from the $28 million bid benefitted 19 space-focused charities"...] The people flying with Sun on Sunday were Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal, an Indian-born American real estate investor and adventurer; Turkish businessman and photographer Gökhan Erdem; Deborah Martorell, a journalist and meteorologist from Puerto Rico; Englishman Lionel Pitchford, who has run an orphanage in Nepal for three decades; and American entrepreneur James (J.D.) Russell... All six passengers were spaceflight rookies except Russell, who flew on Blue Origin's NS-28 mission in November 2024.

NS-34 was the 14th human spaceflight to date for New Shepard, which consists of a rocket topped by a crew capsule. Both of these elements are reusable; the rocket comes back to Earth for a vertical, powered touchdown like those performed by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, and the capsule lands softly under parachutes. Each New Shepard flight lasts 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown.
"New Shepard has now flown 75 people into space," Blue Origin said in a statement, "including five people who have flown twice."

With Flight of Six More Tourists to Space, Blue Origin Carries 75th Passenger More | Reply

With Flight of Six More Tourists to Space, Blue Origin Carries 75th Passenger

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  • BLUE PENIS vs SPACEX (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Monday August 04, 2025 @04:09AM (#65564824)

    The comparison is inevitable and made by ever media outlet commenting on the launches. SpaceX actually accomplishes things (orbital insertion, LEO sats, military missions, CRS and Crew missions to the ISS among them. Blue Penis has a cartoon of a guy in a big cowboy hat pretending to be another cartoon guy, while taking people on a long-ride to absolutely nothing.

    If you'd like to experience near weightlessness you can pay $28M to win a seat at an auction at fly to "the edge of space", or buy $300 worth of SCUBA gear, leave out most of the weight in your BCD, and enjoy the same. The sights are better.

    Why people pander to this effort is beyond me. All it does is waste a lot of people's time, money, and fuel to get these rich clowns up to "almost nothing" for "almost no time" where they accomplish "nothing" and are merely passengers on an almost-space vessel -- not astronauts. That's been discussed on /. and TechDirt and Wired and others before so As the US Secretary of Transportation put it in April 2025:
    > “The crew who flew to space this week on an automated flight by Blue Origin were brave and glam, but you cannot identify as an astronaut,” continued Duffy's post about the proper terminology regarding what they achieved. “They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria

    Useless, pointless, expensive. Please, compare that to SpaceX, ULA, or the Chinese and other countries' programs.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      Yes, all true, but note that Blue Origin did finally achieve orbit in January.
      And the plan is for a second launch next month. We wish them success in landing the booster.
      Isn't it good to have another company launching? ULA hardly counts.

      • Yes, all true, but note that Blue Origin did finally achieve orbit in January. And the plan is for a second launch next month. We wish them success in landing the booster. Isn't it good to have another company launching? ULA hardly counts.

        Yes, it is a very good thing. Space activities are not supposed to be a monolithic monoculture.

        We'll always have the fans yakking about Spacex vs (fill in who it is triggering them) in a sort of 21st century Ford vs Chevy row.

        Complaining about Blue Origin and its peen shaped carnival ride rocket and trying to compare them to Spacex - What's next, comparing Spacex to Estes hobby rockets bought at the hobby store?

        It's just not a good look guys. We all know how silly the diva launch publicity was. But

    • The crew who flew to space this week on an automated flight by Blue Origin were brave and glam, but you cannot identify as an astronaut,” continued Duffy's post about the proper terminology regarding what they achieved. “They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria

      Useless, pointless, expensive. Please, compare that to SpaceX, ULA, or the Chinese and other countries' programs.

      No, they are not true astronauts. I laughed at the Diva flight like most of us did.

      The big question though, is why this triggers the Spacex cult so much.

      Siddown son, time for Uncle Ol to give you some telling.

      Elon Musk and Spacex do not own space. Elon Musk and Spacex don't own the rocket business. the Falcons are fine rockets. So when you post screeds complaining about Blue Origin is and about how stupid Blue Origin is, you just look level 11 petty.

      reee?

      • Or maybe blue origin is stupid. Nope, blue origin IS stupid. No maybes

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Viol8 ( 599362 )

          Only if you don't think about it for what it really is - a gigantic ego massage for Bezos plus a way to earn an extra few pennies for his already groaning bank account,.

          • Only if you don't think about it for what it really is - a gigantic ego massage for Bezos plus a way to earn an extra few pennies for his already groaning bank account,.

            So now let's talk about Starship. That's not an ego stroking for Elmo? The rocket that has never made orbit, and is going to Mars next year?

            I would suggest renaming Starship to Spruce Goose II

          • Isn't it running at a loss? Also, why do you care if Bezos wants to throw a few hundred billion at building rockets, regardless the motivation? That sounds like envy turned into resentment, over nothing.

            I say good for him. Maybe he loses a ton of money, maybe he makes a ton of money. Maybe they make great rockets and we all benefit, maybe he just sends up some tourists and then closes the doors. No skin off my nose.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Viol8 ( 599362 )

              "why do you care"

              " That sounds like envy turned into resentment"

              I get so tired of straw men from people who have no other argument.

              The only I care about is the pollution this pointless endeavour creates.

              • That's not a straw man, it's a question. I'm not creating an easily attacked and conveniently defined target to beat up on, I'm trying to figure out why anyone would have a bug up their ass about someone trying to build rockets. If pollution is your sole concern, why didn't you mention it at any point? That's not the concern you demonstrated. What you demonstrated was baffling anger over someone's decision to spend their money on building rockets.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Viol8 ( 599362 )

                  " That sounds like envy turned into resentment" is not a question, its a straw man so don't try and back pedal sonny, you're not fooling anyone.

                  "What you demonstrated was baffling anger over someone's decision to spend their money on building rockets."

                  Yeah, and? Why do you have a problem with that, you his secret boyfriend or something?

                  • Maybe I am! Maybe I'm yours! Or maybe I really don't understand the anger and do sometimes care enough to worry about you.

        • Or maybe blue origin is stupid. Nope, blue origin IS stupid. No maybes

          So what? Neither you nor Elmo don't make the rules.

          As for stupid, some of it sure is. Making a big deal out to the first all female crew was pretty silly, like an all female ride on a carnival tilt-a-whirl. But there are engineers on the project learning stuff.

          For this candle lobbing game, there is a real steep learning curve, and they are learning - that knowledge might just be put to use on more useful orbital systems.

        • Its stupid in the same way that a roller coaster is stupid, recreational scuba diving, mountain climbing, skydiving, skiing, running a marathon, playing an instrument, or playing video games is. Nothing practical is achieved, its a waste of time and money, right? Or maybe people like doing things, and you shouldn't pass judgment on what exactly people enjoy doing with their time and money.

          If we are going to start judging people, who buddy buckle the fuck up Because there is NO FUCKING way I approve of what
      • It's not just the "SpaceX cult." What's disturbing about the story is that Blue Origin is selling as "space travel" something that can barely be called a suborbital flight (the capsule doesn't even need a heat shield) so in other words, a scam. And a really expensive scam.

        And okay, they're still learning how to make something that might translate into actual spaceflight... But they shouldn't be selling it to tourists when they don't have the capability to deliver it yet.
    • So what? It's their money, let them spend it. Maybe in the long run BO becomes a viable competitor in the market and the competition drives down costs and drives up innovation. Maybe it doesn't get any further than this.

      I say good on them for giving it a shot. What's the worst that can happen, an incredibly wealthy guy becomes slightly less wealthy? Who cares!

    • There is always a market to sell things/services to people with way too much money.

  • Darn (Score:3)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Monday August 04, 2025 @04:10AM (#65564826)

    Almost made it through the summer. [slashdot.org] At least some charities benefited here.

  • this is a tabloid subject

  • Landing on some country's airport (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 ) on Monday August 04, 2025 @06:06AM (#65564888)

    and then telling everyone you visited the country. =/

    • Just like that interview video going around where the candidate says he went to Stanford University but in reality all did was visit a friend there.

  • No ody cares (Score:3, Funny)

    by paul_engr ( 6280294 ) on Monday August 04, 2025 @08:32AM (#65564960)
    Bezos can suck a turd

  • "space-focused charities" wtf? (Score:4)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Monday August 04, 2025 @09:19AM (#65565026) Homepage

    Such as what, Mars Famine Relief? Venusian Cancer Research?

  • Maybe /. needs to start covering vacations to Bermuda, too.

  • "an Indian-born American real estate investor and adventurer"
    Yeah, sure. Such an adventurer! "See, I have gobs of money, so I can go on adventures!".

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