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Blue Origin’s 4th Astro-Tourism Flight Set to Launch without Big Names

Members of the media tour the Blue Origin Crew Capsule mockup and New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. (Reuters)
Members of the media tour the Blue Origin Crew Capsule mockup and New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. (Reuters)
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Blue Origin’s 4th Astro-Tourism Flight Set to Launch without Big Names

Members of the media tour the Blue Origin Crew Capsule mockup and New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. (Reuters)
Members of the media tour the Blue Origin Crew Capsule mockup and New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. (Reuters)

The fourth commercial flight of Jeff Bezos' space tourism venture Blue Origin, offering short suborbital joyrides to well-heeled thrill-seekers and celebrity guests, was due for liftoff on Tuesday from the company's launch site in rural west Texas.

Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft was slated for launch at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 GMT) with six would-be citizen astronauts strapped into the crew cabin atop the fully autonomous launch vehicle, standing nearly six stories tall, outside Van Horn, Texas.

But unlike Blue Origin's first three commercial flights, with passenger rosters including "Star Trek" actor William Shatner, morning TV host Michael Strahan and even Bezos himself, nobody among the latest group of customers even comes close to being famous.

The most recent household name confirmed as a non-paying promotional guest, "Saturday Night Live" comic Pete Davidson, dropped out earlier this month when the planned launch was postponed for six days from its original March 23 date to allow time for additional pre-flight tests.

Days later the company announced that Davidson, 28, the boyfriend of reality TV star Kim Kardashian, had been replaced on the latest "crew" manifest by veteran Blue Origin designer Gary Lai, architect of the New Shepard reusable launch system.

Lai is flying for free. He joins five previously announced paying customers - angel investor Marty Allen, real estate veteran Marc Hagle and his wife Sharon Hagle, entrepreneur and University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen and George Nield, founder-president of Commercial Space Technologies.

Kitchen's journey to the final frontier caps a lifelong dedication to travel that has taken him to all 193 UN-recognized countries, according to biographical material from Blue Origin.

Tuesday's entire flight, from liftoff to touchdown, is expected to last just over 10 minutes. The crew will experience a few minutes of weightlessness at the very apex of their suborbital ride, some 350,000 feet (106,680 meters) high, before their capsule falls back to Earth for a parachute landing on the desert floor.

Bezos, the billionaire founder of online retail giant Amazon , tagged along himself on Blue Origin's inaugural crewed flight to the edge of space last July.

He accompanied his brother, Mark Bezos, trailblazing octogenarian female aviator Wally Funk and an 18-year-old Dutch high school graduate.

Later passengers included Shatner, who became the oldest person to fly to space at age 90, "Good Morning America" co-host and retired NFL star Strahan, and the eldest daughter of pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard, for whom Blue Origin's spacecraft is named.

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Varieties

France Presses Ahead with Music Festivals Despite Extreme Heat

Two women walk in front of the sea at the beginning of the "Promenade des Anglais" on the French riviera city of Nice, on June 20, 2026. (AFP)
Two women walk in front of the sea at the beginning of the "Promenade des Anglais" on the French riviera city of Nice, on June 20, 2026. (AFP)
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France Presses Ahead with Music Festivals Despite Extreme Heat

Two women walk in front of the sea at the beginning of the "Promenade des Anglais" on the French riviera city of Nice, on June 20, 2026. (AFP)
Two women walk in front of the sea at the beginning of the "Promenade des Anglais" on the French riviera city of Nice, on June 20, 2026. (AFP)

France on Sunday prepared to host its annual street music festival in boiling heat, with a third of the country placed on red alert and alcohol consumption banned.

Every year on June 21, musicians take over France, filling street corners and rooftops as revelers celebrate midsummer late into the night.

This year, however, the Fete de la Musique coincides with a ferocious heatwave, with a record 35 departments -- roughly a third of the country -- placed under the highest heat alert.

Weather service Meteo-France warned that temperatures could reach as high as 41C in some places.

While some cities have cancelled street events, celebrations in others - including Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg - will go ahead.

Last year, around two million people attended the festival in Paris alone, many of them travelling from Britain.

To ensure public safety, authorities will deploy 4,800 police officers and gendarmes, along with 2,500 firefighters, in and around the capital.

Gatherings along the lower banks of the Seine will be prohibited to reduce the risk of people falling into the water.

According to AFP estimates, around 53 million people in France will be affected by the heat on Sunday, with a further 45 departments under orange alert.

The number of departments on red alert has reached a record high, surpassing the previous peak of 20 recorded on July 24-25, 2019.

The Atlantic port city of Nantes is offering free access to swimming pools and museums until the end of the red alert period.

Varieties

After Samurai Blue Sweep Aside Tunisia, Japan Fans Clean Up Monterrey Stadium

A fan of Japan collects trash after the World Cup Group F match between Tunisia and Japan in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP)
A fan of Japan collects trash after the World Cup Group F match between Tunisia and Japan in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP)
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After Samurai Blue Sweep Aside Tunisia, Japan Fans Clean Up Monterrey Stadium

A fan of Japan collects trash after the World Cup Group F match between Tunisia and Japan in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP)
A fan of Japan collects trash after the World Cup Group F match between Tunisia and Japan in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP)

Japanese ‌fans celebrated their team's 4-0 victory over Tunisia in the 1,000th match in World Cup history on Saturday by staying behind at Monterrey’s stadium to collect rubbish from the stands.

The practice, known in Japan as gomi hiroi, reflects an emphasis on taking responsibility for shared spaces.

Ken Okawa, 30, said he was happy to bring this tradition to his very first World Cup match as he stooped down to collect discarded cups and other garbage ‌from the floor ‌around his seat.

"We are guests in ‌Mexico," ⁠he said. "I have ⁠been treated wonderfully, so this is my way of showing my appreciation."

The practice is instilled from a very young age in Japan, where schoolchildren are taught to clean up their own classrooms.

Miku Takeya, 41, said that the habit of tidying up after herself has become second ⁠nature.

"It's a natural part of our culture," she ‌said. "We do this to ‌ensure that everything we use is left clean so that the ‌next person can use it comfortably."

Images of Japanese ‌fans cleaning up in stadiums after Samurai Blue matches during this year's World Cup have gone viral.

Ahead of Saturday's match, Nuevo León Governor Samuel García said he had arranged for 20,000 ‌trash bags to be distributed in the stadium during the match, as well as ⁠at Fanfest ⁠and other tourist sites, following requests from Japanese fans, according to local media.

While this practice has captured global attention, many Japanese fans say it is nothing out of the ordinary for them.

"It's common sense in Japan," said Ichiro Oyo, 27.

Still, Ryo Matsuoka, 32, said he was proud to bring this part of Japanese culture to the world stage.

"I think it is a matter of great pride that this is being showcased in a stadium like this, where people from all over the world are watching," he said.

Varieties

French Police Raid House for Drugs and Find a Picasso

Staff members pose next to Pablo Picasso's 'Buste de femme', during a media preview by Sotheby's in central London on June 11, 2026, to highlight masterpieces from the Lewis Collection, estimated to be worth some 200 million pounds (267 million USD). (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
Staff members pose next to Pablo Picasso's 'Buste de femme', during a media preview by Sotheby's in central London on June 11, 2026, to highlight masterpieces from the Lewis Collection, estimated to be worth some 200 million pounds (267 million USD). (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
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French Police Raid House for Drugs and Find a Picasso

Staff members pose next to Pablo Picasso's 'Buste de femme', during a media preview by Sotheby's in central London on June 11, 2026, to highlight masterpieces from the Lewis Collection, estimated to be worth some 200 million pounds (267 million USD). (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)
Staff members pose next to Pablo Picasso's 'Buste de femme', during a media preview by Sotheby's in central London on June 11, 2026, to highlight masterpieces from the Lewis Collection, estimated to be worth some 200 million pounds (267 million USD). (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

A police raid looking for drugs at a house in a Paris suburb turned up a painting by Pablo Picasso, prosecutors said Saturday, according to AFP.

"This discovery was made during a search carried out as part of an investigation into drug trafficking," said the public prosecutor's office of Creteil, south-east of Paris.

They had opened an investigation into theft and dealing in stolen goods, the statement added.

On Friday, four people were brought before a court for an immediate hearing in connection with the case, the office said.

According to newspaper Le Parisien, which first reported the story, the search was carried out on Monday by investigators in Champigny-sur-Marne, a town east of Paris.

As well as the Picasso, the police seized cannabis resin, luxury clothing and several thousand euros in cash, the newspaper said.

The Creteil prosecutor's office said the painting had been authenticated as a work by the Spanish painter, but did not specify which painting it was.