Blue Origin: Sixth human flight NS-22 to launch on August 4

“Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, New Shepard is Blue Origin’s fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight from the beginning.
 
During the 11-minute journey, astronauts soar past the Kármán Line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognized boundary of space, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing life-changing views of Earth through windows that take up more than one-third of the capsule’s surface area.
 
Every person on board is a crew member—there are no pilots.”

“- The Pyramids of Egypt represent Sara Sabry’s heritage and celebrate her accomplishment as the country’s first astronaut.
 
– Magellan’s ship represents Mário Ferreira’s Portuguese heritage and lifelong passion for adventure.
 
– The Mariana Trench represents Vanessa O’Brien’s feat in reaching Challenger Deep, Earth’s deepest point.
 
– The crew capsule is depicted as a basketball, symbolizing Dude Perfect’s trick shots and Coby Cotton’s role in co-founding the company.
 
– The fish swimming below Magellan’s ship symbolize Steve Young’s passion for fishing.
 
– The stagecoach represents Clint Kelly III’s aspirations for humanity’s reach into the new frontier of space.
 
– New Shepard’s booster and the West Texas mountains are also represented in the patch.”

“Sara is an Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineer, and founder of Deep Space Initiative (DSI), a nonprofit aiming to increase accessibility for space research.
 
She became Egypt’s first female analog astronaut in 2021 after completing a two-week Moon mission simulating the extreme conditions astronauts experience in orbital space.
 
She is co-founding a Space Ambassadorship Program with the Egyptian Space Agency to inspire Arab children and shed light on important research opportunities that have the potential to benefit life on Earth.
 
Sara earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the American University in Cairo and a master’s in biomedical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano.
 
She is currently working on a PhD in aerospace sciences with a focus on space suit design. Sara is fluent in Arabic, French, and English, and currently resides in Berlin.”

“Mário Ferreira is a Portuguese entrepreneur, investor, and President of Pluris Investments Group, which includes more than 40 companies spanning tourism, media (TV and radio), real estate, insurance, and renewable energy.
 
Mário founded Pluris 30 years ago. The company initially started as a small river cruise company in Portugal and has since expanded throughout Europe and internationally with ocean expedition cruises focused on Antarctica and Arctic.
 
Mário is also the President and largest shareholder of Media Capital, which owns several cable and public TV Channels in Portugal, including TVI and CNN Portugal. The media group also includes the largest producer of TV films and mini-series in Portugal, and has won two EMMY Awards.
 
He is also one of the primary investors in the Portuguese version of Shark Tank and is passionate about mentoring young entrepreneurs.
 
Mário is a passionate adventurer. In 2007, he raced the world’s most difficult car rally, the Dakar, ran the London Marathon in 2010, and is an avid skier, runner and scuba diver.
 
Mário holds a degree in Tourism Business Management and a postgraduate degree in Advanced Management for Top Managers at IESE, University of Navarra, Spain. He is also a 2005 graduate of the National Defense Auditors course.
 
Mário is curator of the Luso-American Development Foundation and was decorated by the President of Portugal with the title of “Comendador” in 2003.
 
He is married to Paula Ferreira and has four children.”

“Vanessa is a British-American explorer and author, and the first woman to reach Earth’s highest and lowest points. She is an advocate for climate change, sampling glaciers to test radiogenic isotopes and collecting water samples to test ocean acidification.
 
She is also a champion for women’s equality and education, carrying the UN Women’s flag to the summit of K2.
 
Following NS-22, Vanessa will become the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air, completing the Explorers’ Extreme Trifecta, a Guinness World Record.
 
Vanessa will become the first woman to reach the Earth’s highest peak (Mt. Everest), its deepest (Challenger Deep), and cross the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
 
Vanessa is the author of TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS, published March 2021 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books.
 
She has an MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University, and is married to Jonathan O’Brien. They split time between London and New York.”

“Coby Cotton is one of the five co-founders of the YouTube channel Dude Perfect, the most-subscribed sports channel on YouTube and one of the most popular in the world with more than 57 million followers.
 
He co-founded the sports entertainment channel known for specializing in trick shots and comedy videos in 2009 with his college roommates Garrett Hilbert, Tyler Toney, Cody Jones, and his brother, Cory Cotton.
 
Coby’s seat is sponsored by MoonDAO, whose mission is to decentralize access to space exploration. MoonDAO members voted to have Coby represent them on this flight.”

“Clint managed research and technology programs focused primarily on computer science and robotics during his time in government and industry.
 
In 1984, he started the Autonomous Land Vehicle project while at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and is credited with starting the development of the technology base leading to today’s driverless cars.
 
He and his wife have photographed wildlife on every continent from the High Arctic to Antarctica with an emphasis on big cats, polar bears, and all 21 species of penguins.
 
Their penguin travels are described in their book, In Pursuit of All the World’s Penguins (2016).
 
Clint currently serves on the advisory board of the Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.”

“Steve Young is the former CEO of Young’s Communications LLC (Y-COM), the largest telecommunications contractor in the state of Florida under his leadership from 1992 to 2021.
 
An avid fisherman, Steve serves as Governor of the Board at Eau Gallie Yacht Club and Committee Member of the Space Coast Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).
 
He is also a large community contributor through TrinitY Group, his giving foundation, and owns Pineapples, a new restaurant in Melbourne, Florida.”