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July 14, 2021

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Officials OK a new era of life in space

The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday it had approved a Blue Origin license to carry humans on the New Shepard launch system into space.

Former Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is set to fly to the edge of space on Blue Origin’s maiden crewed voyage on July 20.

Blue Origin is authorized to carry humans while its FAA license is valid through August and is approved to conduct these missions from its Launch Site One in Texas, the agency confirmed.

Blue Origin was required to verify its launch vehicle’s hardware and software worked safely during a test flight and the FAA confirmed it met regulatory requirements.

Blue Origin’s flight comes a little over a week after space-tourism rival Virgin Galactic successfully sent a crew including its founder, British billionaire Richard Branson, to the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, and the space firm founded by rival billionaire Elon Musk, are working to usher in an era of routine commercial civilian space travel in what is known as the “billionaire space race.”




 

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