The excursion, which will last about 11 minutes from takeoff to landing, will kick off from Blue Origin’s facilities at an extremely remote plot of land near Van Horn, Texas, which is about two hours from El Paso, on Tuesday July 20 at 8 a.m. CT or 9 a.m. ET, weather permitting.
Blue Origin is also expected to host a post-flight press briefing with Bezos and his fellow passengers.
Here’s a breakdown of all the important moments of the day (Note: T- indicates “time before liftoff.” If all goes to plan, “T” will be 9 a.m. ET. If there are weather delays, the timeline below will hold, but the “T” will change.):
- T-90 minutes: Webcast begins
- T-45 minutes: Astronauts leave Blue Origin’s Astronaut Training Center for the launch pad
- T-30 minutes: Astronauts climb the launch tower. If all is “go,” they will climb aboard the crew capsule
- T-24 minutes: Hatch on the New Shepard crew capsule will close
- T0: Liftoff
- T+ 3 minutes (approximately): Capsule surpasses 62 miles in altitude, a widely recognized boundary of outer space
- T+ 4 minutes (approximately): The capsule reaches the top of its flight path and the passengers spend a few minutes in weightlessness
- T+8 minutes: New Shepard rocket booster lands on a nearby ground pad
- T+11 minutes: New Shepard crew capsule, with parachutes deployed, lands nearby
- T+22 minutes: Hatch opens and astronauts disembark
- T+30 minutes: Webcast concludes
- T+ 2 hours (approximately): Press conference with Bezos and other astronauts begins
Source link