Blue Origin will be sending an all-female crew to suborbital space in the future led by Jeff Bezos' girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Jan. 25.
The information was provided by Sanchez herself. She revealed to the Journal that she will serve as the mission's commander while traveling in Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital craft.
When is the Launch Date?
Although the exact launch date is not yet known, trained helicopter pilot Sanchez said she intends to take to the skies by next year.
Blue Origin has used the reusable New Shepard, which comprises a first-stage launcher and a crew capsule, to fly six crewed suborbital missions, all of which have been successful so far.
Bezos, his brother Mark, and aviation veteran Wally Funk were all included on the first flights that took place in July 2021.
Four individuals were also carried to the last frontier on the second New Shepard crewed flight, which took place in October 2021. But all six of the spacecraft's seats were utilized for the next four crewed missions.
The latest passenger flight out of New Shepard happened in August 2022. But later on, the RSS H.G. Wells, Blue Origin's payload-only New Shepard spacecraft, experienced technical issues during an autonomous research flight, which resulted in the loss of the rocket.
The escape mechanism of the RSS H.G. Wells operated as intended, launching the capsule out of harm's way and allowing it to land without incident under parachutes, as per Space.com.
New Shepard has not taken to the skies with a crew or without one after that incident. What caused the problem has not yet been disclosed by Blue Origin.
Flights using the New Shepard last only around 11 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown. For a brief period, passengers are weightless and view Earth amid the starless background of space.
First Mexican Woman in Space
Blue Origin's fifth batch of passengers flown to space in June 2022 was particularly special for historical reasons after flying the first Mexican-born woman launched into space.
A charity organization called Space for Humanity chose Katya Echazarreta, an engineer and scientific communicator from Guadalajara, Mexico, to go on this journey out of hundreds of applicants.
The organization's mission is to send "extraordinary leaders" into space in order to expose them to the overview effect, a phenomenon that astronauts frequently describe experiencing when viewing the Earth from space.
Rodolfo Neri Vela is the first Mexican to fly to space after joining NASA's Space Shuttle mission in 1985. Echazarreta, on the other hand, is the first Mexican woman to travel to space.
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