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)
TT

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.



UK's Catherine Turns 43 Hoping for Better Year

Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
TT

UK's Catherine Turns 43 Hoping for Better Year

Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Catherine, Princess of Wales celebrates her 43rd birthday on Thursday, seeking to turn the page on a turbulent year which saw her retreat from public life to fight cancer.

Kate, as she is commonly known, is expected to step up her royal engagements in 2025 after announcing in September that she had completed chemotherapy for an unspecified cancer, AFP reported.

Kensington Palace has not said where the Princess of Wales plans to mark the start of her 44th year but she usually spends it surrounded by family in Norfolk.

Her husband Prince William, heir to the British throne, was regularly photographed alone last year as both Kate and his father King Charles III received treatment for the disease.

But the royal couple are set to make more appearances together over the next 12 months as they eye a return to normality, with William suggesting that an overseas trip may even be on the cards.

The princess has not taken part in an official foreign visit since she attended the Rugby World Cup in France in October 2023.

"I think hopefully Catherine will be doing a bit more next year, so we'll have some more trips maybe lined up," William said during a visit to Cape Town in November.

Catherine's birthday comes almost a year since she was admitted to hospital for abdominal surgery on January 16, 2024.

She spent nearly two weeks in the London Clinic after her operation, and was recuperating at home when she discovered that she had cancer and had to begin chemotherapy.

Her lack of public appearances sparked wild speculation online about her condition and whereabouts, which Kate finally put to bed with a video message on Instagram in March revealing her diagnosis.

She won plaudits for her openness and received an outpouring of support, but the announcement also plunged the monarchy into crisis given that her father-in-law Charles was battling the disease as well.

Catherine received further praise following the release of a new video in September, in which she said that the previous nine months had been "incredibly tough".

'Brutal' year
In a touching video that featured William and their three children -- George, 11, Charlotte, 9, and Louis, 6 -- Catherine said that she was cancer free and looking forward to undertaking more engagements "when I can".

Her gradual return to public life late last year included attending the Emir of Qatar's state visit to Britain and the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies honouring the UK's war dead.

She also visited Southport in northwest England to meet people affected by a knife attack in July that killed three young girls.

Catherine reflected on "the most difficult times" as she hosted a Christmas service at Westminster Abbey last month, which came after William described the "brutal" year as the "hardest" of his life.

Catherine, hugely popular in Britain since her marriage to William in 2011, is adored by UK newspapers, who praise her elegance and warm attitude to the public during royal engagements.

The future queen is the daughter of a flight attendant and air traffic controller who went on to make a fortune from a business supplying party items.

Catherine met William in the early 2000s at the University of St Andrews in Scotland where she studied art history, before they wed in 2011.

She is seen as a key figure in maintaining the royals' position and relevance in a changing Britain.

Her public engagements this year are likely to feature the various charities she supports in early years education.

Catherine and William may also be called upon to attend the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8 and Victory over Japan Day on August 15, which mark the end of World War II.

The royal couple also have their daughter's milestone 10th birthday to look forward to in May.