Blue Origin's NS-22 mission crew floats in space during recent joy ride to space; Watch

Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin accomplished its sixth crewed sub-orbital mission when it launched six astronauts to space on August 4 from West Texas. Named New Shepard 22 (NS-22), mission lifted off at 7:27 pm IST and marked success of company’s 22nd overall launch mission. After lifting off toward  Karman Line, internationally recognised boundary of space, NS-22 mission crew experience a few minutes of weightlessness, before parachuting down into desert of West Texas.

Although crew was approximately 100 km above Earth's surface, ir excitement of floating micro-gravity was captured in cameras installed inside New Shepard spacecraft. Earlier on Friday, Blue Origin shared a short clip showing moments when passengers experienced lack of gravity and started floating inside crew capsule. astronauts were also seen screaming and waving to camera as New Shepard capsule soared over Karman line. 

What was so special about NS-22 mission?

After crew capsule touched down in West Texas, O’Brien became first woman to reach world’s highest (Mt. Everest) and lowest (Challenger Deep) points—and reach space. She also created a Guinness World Record called Explorers' Extreme Trifecta. "I have taken UN (United Nations) women's flag to top of K2 but I realise that this is nowhere near representative of height of which women can reach", O’Brien said. 

Besides, mission also saw  first Egyptian (Sara Sabry) and first Portuguese (Mario Ferreira) astronauts launch into space. "I want to motivate youngest generation to Portuguese that it is possible to go and discover unknown", Ferreira said after his joy ride to space. "It's just an incredible honour to be representing Egypt in space for very first time in history", said Sabry. 

Both Sabry and Ferreira were accompanied by YouTube channel Dude Perfect’s co-founder Coby Cotton, Clint Kelly III and Steve Young. While Kelly is a research scientist in  areas of computer science and robotics and Young is  former CEO of Young's Communications LLC (Y-COM) and a current member of Space Coast Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).