Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is CLEARED for launch tomorrow
To oldly go! Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will take William Shatner and three others to the edge of space tomorrow following a one day delay due to poor weather
Blue Origin is cleared to launch its New Shepard rocket on WednesdayThe mission was set to occur Tuesday, but poor weather caused a delayWilliam Shatner, Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers will take off at 10am ET inside the capsule and soar 62 miles above Earth’s surface
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle–.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle–.css”);
<!–
Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket is a go for launch on Wednesday, following a one-day delay due to windy weather.
The Jeff Bezos-founded company’s lead flight director. Nick Patrick. gave several updates about the launch on Tuesday, which will take actor William Shatner, Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries and Audrey Powers into space, 62 miles above Earth’s surface.
Speaking from Launch Site One in Texas, Patrick announced lift off is now at 10am ET instead of the original 9:30am – the rocket rollout was pushed back a a half hour due to wind.
The NS-18 rocket is scheduled to rollout two and half hours before liftoff, followed by propellant load three hours before and then the astronauts will head inside the capsule 35 minutes prior to take off.
Patrick also said the crew completed their first day of training Sunday, were off yesterday due to the slip in the original schedule and spent Tuesday completing launch training.
Scroll down for videos
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is a go for launch Wednesday, following a one day delay due to windy weather
‘The training itself was designed to do three things for our astronauts,’ Patrick said during a video interview.
‘The first thing is it’s designed to train them on the safety systems that we have onboard the crew capsule and the expected responses from the crew if we were to have an emergency.’
The second is to prepare the crew for the unexpected aspects of spaceflight such as strange noises, bumps and accelerations, Patrick explained.
The third part of training teaches the crew how to behave in zero-gravity inside the cabin without colliding with their flight mates, he continued.
The mission will take will take William Shatner (2nd from right), Chris Boshuizen (right), Glen de Vries (left) and Audrey Powers (2nd from left) 62 miles above Earth’s surface
The NS-18 rocket is scheduled to rollout two and half hours before liftoff, followed by propellant load three hours before and then the astronauts will head inside the capsule 35 minutes prior to take off
‘I am very confident that we will learn tomorrow that this training has gone well for these four astronauts and we will be ready to launch them,’ said Patrick.
The four individuals are scheduled to pile inside a truck to the launch tower 45 minutes before lift-off.
The crew will then climb the tower, ring a bell that hangs at one end of the crossing and strap into the fully autonomous 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket, ultimately blasting off from a base in the west Texas town of Van Horn on a journey to the edge of space.
The crew completed their first day of training Sunday, were off yesterday due to the slip in the original schedule and spent Tuesday completing launch training
Pictured is William Shatner entering the capsule during training
Here is Chris Boshuizen and William Shatner training inside the Blue Origin capsule
‘I’m going to see the vastness of space and the extraordinary miracle of our Earth and how fragile it is compared to the forces at work in the universe,’ Shatner, who is poised to become the oldest person in space, told NBC’s ‘Today‘ program.
‘I’m thrilled and anxious – and a little nervous and a little frightened – about this whole new adventure.’
The launch represents another crucial test of Blue Origin as the company competes against billionaire-backed rivals – Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic – to attract customers willing to pay large amounts of money to experience the exhilaration of spaceflight.
The New Shepard rocket is scheduled to rollout two and half hours before liftoff, followed by propellant load three hours before and then the astronauts will load inside the capsule just 35 mins prior to take off
Branson beat Bezos to space by just 10 days, as he and an entourage soared 53 miles above Earth’s surface in July, however Bezos climbed two miles higher when he took to the skies.
Although Musk has yet to take the journey himself, his firm recently sent four civilians into orbit last moth for a three-day trip around Earth.
Musk has, however, purchased a seat on Branson’s space tourism rocket – but has yet to reveal when he will take the epic journey.
