Blue Origin, the American private aerospace company led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has successfully launched its reusable New Shepard spacecraft with six space tourists aboard, completing its eighth suborbital space tourism mission.

The rocket carrying the New Shepard spacecraft launched at 9:08 a.m. EST (4:08 p.m. Moscow time) from the Corn Ranch launch site near the city of Van Horn in western Texas.

The maximum altitude of the flight was about 104 km. The flight lasted about ten minutes. The crew capsule made a soft landing using a parachute system and returned safely to Earth. Landing occurred at 09:19 US East Coast time (16:19 Kiev time).

The NS-26 mission went nearly flawlessly, Blue Origin broadcast commentator Ariana Cornell noted after the capsule’s return:

Up and back. This is one of the cleanest flights I’ve ever seen with this rocket. But behind every rocket is an extraordinary team.

The six people who flew on NS-26 included philanthropist and entrepreneur Nicolina Elric, University of Florida Astraeus Space Institute professor and director Rob Ferl, entrepreneur Eugene Green, cardiologist Ayman Jahangir, student Carsen Kitchen and entrepreneur Ephraim Raf.

Kitchen, 21, broke the flight record and became the youngest woman to cross the Karman Line. Keep in mind that the concept of the limit of space is currently quite controversial. Many people consider the Karman Line, which is 100 km above sea level, to be the traditional limit of space. However, NASA and the US military give the title of astronaut to anyone who ascends above 80 km. According to this version, the youngest female astronaut is Anastasia Myers, who flew with Virgin Galactic in August 2023 at the age of 18.