{"id":56482,"date":"2025-08-04T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T00:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56482\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T00:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T00:01:09","slug":"blue-origin-launches-34th-new-shepard-rocket-into-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56482\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin launches 34th New Shepard rocket into space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bezos\u2019s Kent-based rocket technology company Blue Origin launched a crypto billionaire and five others into space Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The mission was called \u201cNS-34,\u201d since it was the 34th flight of the company\u2019s New Shepard spacecraft.<\/p>\n

It blasted off from the company\u2019s west Texas spaceport at 5:43 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time.<\/p>\n

The crew member considered the highest-profile person aboard the flight was Justin Sun, a 34-year-old billionaire who created a blockchain platform called \u201cTron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in June of 2021, Sun offered the highest amount of any bidder, in an auction for a seat aboard the first-ever crewed flight of New Shepard.<\/p>\n

He anonymously paid $28 million.<\/p>\n

According to Space.com, information about the bid was not made public until six months after the auction.<\/p>\n

However, because of his busy schedule, Sun was unable to join that historic flight, which launched in July of 2021.<\/p>\n

The date of that landmark flight was July 20th, which coincided with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/p>\n

Passengers on that first flight included Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch student Oliver Daemen.<\/p>\n

On Sunday\u2019s flight, passengers accompanying Sun included Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal, an Indian-born American real estate investor and adventurer; Turkish businessman and photographer G\u00f6khan Erdem; Deborah Martorell, a journalist and meteorologist from Puerto Rico; Englishman Lionel Pitchford, who has run an orphanage in Nepal for three decades; and American entrepreneur James (J.D.) Russell.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The six-member crew of the 34th flight of New Shepard. (Photo courtesy: Blue Origin)<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s Senior Vice President, Phil Joyce, released the following post-flight statement at the conclusion of New Shepard\u2019s 34th mission Sunday:<\/p>\n

It was an honor to see so many nations represented on our flight today.\u00a0 The view of our fragile planet from space has a unifying effect on all who witness it, and I am always eager to see how our astronauts use this experience for the benefit of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the first space flight for everyone aboard New Shepard, except the American entrepreneur J.D. Russell.<\/p>\n

He previously flew into sub-orbital flight on Blue Origin\u2019s \u201cNS-28\u201d mission, in November of last year.<\/p>\n

NS-34 was the 14th human spaceflight for New Shepard.<\/p>\n

The launch vehicle consists of a crew capsule on top of a rocket.<\/p>\n

Both of those components can be recycled and used over again.<\/p>\n

The rocket returns to Earth in a vertical position, powered by rockets in a similar fashion to the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.<\/p>\n

The crew capsule slowly falls back to earth, assisted by parachutes, for a soft landing.<\/p>\n

During each New Shepard flight, which are typically 10 to 12 minutes long, passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness.<\/p>\n

This happens when the spacecraft approaches a point 62 miles above the Earth\u2019s surface, which is widely regarded as the place where space begins.<\/p>\n

The amount of money paid by each passenger has not been made public by Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s likely much less than the $28 million Sun paid, when he bid in that initial auction.<\/p>\n

According to Blue Origin, that sum was considered to be a philanthropic contribution.<\/p>\n

The company wrote in its NS-34 Mission Description:<\/p>\n

The proceeds from the $28 million bid benefited 19 space-focused charities to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art and math] and help shape the future of life in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos\u2019s Kent-based rocket technology company Blue Origin launched a crypto billionaire and five others into space Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2976,2989,2985,79,193,99,2988,2987,2986],"class_list":["post-56482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-home","tag-mynorthwest-com","tag-mynorthwest-com-seattle-news","tag-science","tag-space","tag-sports","tag-talk-and-community","tag-traffic","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}