Blue Origin’s human space flight which included Indian American, completes 30th mission to space

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Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s space venture to send regular people to space, successfully completed its tenth human spaceflight and the 30th flight for the New Shepard program.

The astronaut crew included Indian American Tushar Shah, as well as Lane Bess, Jesús Calleja, Elaine Chia Hyde, and Dr. Richard Scott, as well as an undisclosed sixth crew member, a February 25, press release from the company said. The names of the crew members were announced Feb. 18, noting that the space flight takes the humans above the Karman Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Shah is a partner and the co-head of research at a quantitative hedge fund in New York City. He studied physics as an undergraduate at MIT and high energy experimental particle physics for his PhD, also at MIT, according to the bio provided by Blue Origin.

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Shah and his wife, Sara, are philanthropists focused on addressing issues related to poverty, health, and education. They have two children.

Including the Feb. 25 crew, New Shepard has now flown 52 people into space, including repeat astronauts.

“There’s nothing like seeing the diversity among our crews, and this mission brought together people from all over the world—scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, and adventurers,” Senior Vice President, New Shepard Phil Joyce is quoted saying in the press release. “It’s always inspiring to hear their unique perspectives about the life-changing impact of seeing Earth from space. Huge thanks to our customers for supporting our mission to build a road to space for the benefit of Earth.”

The 10th human flight, NS-30, lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas and was webcast on BlueOrigin.com.

The name Blue Origin means “Earth” and the vision spelt out by the company on its website says, “We envision a future where millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose: to restore and sustain Earth, our blue origin.”

The objective of “reusability” is built into the New Shepard and New Glenn rockets, Blue Origin said.

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