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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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Residents in Australia’s Victoria State Urged to Evacuate as Bushfire Rages

This undated handout image received on December 26, 2024 from the State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services shows officials on a road near a bushfire in the Grampians National Park in Australia's Victoria state. (Handout / State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services / AFP)
This undated handout image received on December 26, 2024 from the State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services shows officials on a road near a bushfire in the Grampians National Park in Australia's Victoria state. (Handout / State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services / AFP)
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Residents in Australia’s Victoria State Urged to Evacuate as Bushfire Rages

This undated handout image received on December 26, 2024 from the State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services shows officials on a road near a bushfire in the Grampians National Park in Australia's Victoria state. (Handout / State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services / AFP)
This undated handout image received on December 26, 2024 from the State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services shows officials on a road near a bushfire in the Grampians National Park in Australia's Victoria state. (Handout / State Control Center of the Victoria Emergency Services / AFP)

An ‌out-of-control bushfire in Australia's Victoria state prompted an evacuation alert for residents near a remote mining settlement, authorities said on Saturday.

The alert, at the highest emergency rating, was for the area surrounding the A1 Mine Settlement in the Gaffney's Creek region, about 50 km (31 miles) ‌northeast of ‌state capital Melbourne.

"Leaving immediately is ‌the ⁠safest option, before ⁠conditions become too dangerous," Victoria Emergency said on its website, adding that the fire was not yet controlled.

Mountainous terrain was making it difficult for firefighters to battle ⁠the blaze from the ‌ground, the ‌Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Since the 1860s gold ‌has been mined in the sparsely-populated ‌area, which is also popular with campers and tourists.

Three other bushfires were burning on Saturday at watch and act ‌level, the second highest danger rating, Victoria Emergency said.

In January, ⁠thousands ⁠of firefighters battled bushfires in Australia's southeast that razed homes, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland. They were the worst fires to hit the southeast since the Black Summer blazes of 2019-2020 that destroyed an area the size of Türkiye and killed 33 people.

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Galapagos Park Releases 158 Juvenile Hybrid Tortoises on Floreana to Restore the Ecosystem

Juvenile giant tortoises are loaded onto a boat on Santa Cruz Island for transport to Floreana Island for release as part of a project to reintroduce the Floreana giant tortoise to its native island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Juvenile giant tortoises are loaded onto a boat on Santa Cruz Island for transport to Floreana Island for release as part of a project to reintroduce the Floreana giant tortoise to its native island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
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Galapagos Park Releases 158 Juvenile Hybrid Tortoises on Floreana to Restore the Ecosystem

Juvenile giant tortoises are loaded onto a boat on Santa Cruz Island for transport to Floreana Island for release as part of a project to reintroduce the Floreana giant tortoise to its native island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Juvenile giant tortoises are loaded onto a boat on Santa Cruz Island for transport to Floreana Island for release as part of a project to reintroduce the Floreana giant tortoise to its native island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Nearly 150 years after the last giant tortoises were removed from Floreana Island in Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago, the species made a comeback Friday, when dozens of juvenile hybrids were released to begin restoring the island’s depleted ecosystem.

The 158 newcomers, aged 8 to 13, have begun exploring the habitat they are destined to reshape over the coming years. Their release was perfectly timed with the arrival of the season’s first winter rains.

“They are large enough to be released and can defend themselves against introduced animals such as rats and cats,” said Fredy Villalba, director of the Galapagos National Park breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, noting that the best specimens with the strongest lineage were selected specifically for Floreana.

These released juvenile specimens, out of a total of 700 planned for Floreana, will be introduced gradually. According to Christian Sevilla, director of ecosystems of the Galapagos National Park, they carry between 40% and 80% of the genetic makeup of the Chelonoidis niger —a species that has been extinct for 150 years.

The lineage of these hybrids traces back to Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island, a discovery that still puzzles scientists today. By selecting adults with the strongest genetic makeup, said Sevilla, the breeding program aims to gradually bring the extinct Floreana species back to its former purity.

Two centuries ago, Floreana was home to approximately 20,000 giant tortoises. However, whaling, a devastating fire, and relentless human exploitation eventually led to their complete extinction on the island.

“In genetic terms, reintroducing a species to that island with a significant genetic component of the original species is vital,” biologist Washington Tapia told The Associated Press.

Tapia, a researcher and director of Biodiversa-Consultores — a firm specializing in the Galapagos Islands — emphasized that this process is about more than just numbers; it is about restoring a lost lineage.

Floreana, an island spanning approximately 173 square kilometers (67 square miles), is a volcanic landmass and the southernmost point of the Galapagos archipelago. Situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — roughly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the mainland coast — it remains a remote and vital ecological site.

The tortoises reintroduced to Floreana will share their territory with a diverse population of nearly 200 people alongside flamingos, iguanas, penguins, sea gulls and hawks. However, they must also contend with introduced plant species such as blackberry and guava, as well as animals like rats, cats, pigs and donkeys. These non-native species, introduced by human activity, represent potential threats to the island’s newest inhabitants.

Floreana resident Verónica Mora described the release of the turtles as a dream come true. “We are seeing the reality of a project that began several years ago,” she said, adding that the community feels immense pride in the return of the giant tortoises.

The United Nations designated the Galapagos Islands as a Natural World Heritage Site in 1978. This honor recognizes the islands’ unique abundance of terrestrial and marine species found nowhere else on the planet.

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Austria Turns Hitler’s Home into a Police Station

Workers are finishing works at the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, pictured on February 17, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AFP)
Workers are finishing works at the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, pictured on February 17, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AFP)
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Austria Turns Hitler’s Home into a Police Station

Workers are finishing works at the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, pictured on February 17, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AFP)
Workers are finishing works at the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, pictured on February 17, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AFP)

Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown.

"It's a double-edged sword," said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany.

While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have "been used better or differently", the 53-year-old office assistant told AFP.

The government wants to "neutralize" the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner.

Austria -- which was annexed by Hitler's Germany in 1938 -- has repeatedly been criticized in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust.

The far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a national election for the first time in 2024, though it failed to form a government.

Last year, two streets in Braunau am Inn commemorating Nazis were renamed after years of complaints by activists.

- 'Problematic' -

The house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and lived for a short period of his early life, is right in the center of town on a narrow shop-lined street.

A memorial stone in front reads: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn."

When AFP visited this week, workers were putting the finishing touches to the renovated facade.

Officers are scheduled to move in during "the second quarter of 2026", the interior ministry said.

But for author Ludwig Laher, a member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria that represents Holocaust victims, "a police station is problematic, as the police... are obliged, in every political system, to protect what the state wants".

An earlier idea to turn the house into a place where people would come together to discuss peace-building had "received a lot of support", he told AFP.

Jasmin Stadler, a 34-year-old shop owner and Braunau native, said it would have been interesting to put Hitler's birth in the house in a "historic context", explaining more about the house.

She also slammed the 20-million-euro ($24-million) cost of the rebuild.

- 'Bit of calm' -

But others are in favor of the redesign of the house, which many years ago was rented by the interior ministry and housed a center for people with disabilities before it fell into disrepair.

Wolfgang Leithner, a 57-year-old electrical engineer, said turning it into a police station would "hopefully bring a bit of calm", avoiding it becoming a shrine for far-right extremists.

"It makes sense to use the building and give it to the police, to the public authorities," he said.

The office of Braunau's conservative mayor declined an AFP request for comment.

Throughout Austria, debate on how to address the country's Holocaust history has repeatedly flared.

Some 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and 130,000 forced into exile during Nazi rule.