Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has resumed flights to space tourists after a two-year break.
The rocket that carried out the NS-25 mission has risen from the Launch Site One space center in West Texas. This is his 25th mission.
Blue Origin, backed by Jeff Bezos, had suspended tourist travel operations for nearly two years after the 2022 mission failed. At the time, a New Shepard rocket carrying cargo and humans on short trips into orbit of space failed about a minute after it took off from Texas in September 2022. And two previous releases of the current mission had been delayed.
The spacecraft has six crew members, including former Air Force captain Ed Dwight, who was the first black astronaut in the U.S. Dwight, now 90 years old, was elected NASA's first African-American astronaut by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Among the tourists are another astronaut, three businessmen and a pensioner - Mason Angel, Silwayn Shiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Sheller and Gopi Totakura. The amount of their ticket prices has not been disclosed. Dwight's ticket has been funded in part by the non-commercial organisation Space for Humanity.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has completed its investigation into the Blue Origin spacecraft New Shepard last year and has released its findings. The company has been required to take a total of 21 corrective measures including engine redesign and organizational changes.