Recently, Blue Origin announced that it will carry out the NS-20 manned mission in Texas on March 29 local time, and disclosed some of the crew.
The mission will be the fourth manned flight of the New Shepard and the 20th in its history.
Each crew member of the NS-20 flight will be carrying a postcard prepared by the "Club for the Future" Foundation into space with plans to help students fly rockets made by Blue Origin into space.
Founded in 2019 by Blue Origin, the Club for the Future Foundation aims to advance careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to help build the future of space life.
It is worth mentioning that there are also some changes before and after the 6 paid crew members participating in the manned flight. It is understood that on March 14, Blue Origin said that Pete Davidson, a well-known American actor, would be one of the crew members of the NS-20 flight, but the company later announced that Davidson would no longer participate in the mission, and the new crew was replaced by Gary Lai, the chief architect of the new Shepard of Blue Origin.
The remaining five members are Marty Allen, the couple Sharon Hagle and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen and George Nield.
Figure | Crew of the finalized NS-20 flight (Source: Blue Origin)
So, let's take a look at the specifics of these 6 crew members.
Marty Allen
Marty Allen is an angel investor who excels at turning losses. During his tenure as CEO of Party America, he transformed a california retail company on the brink of ruin into a large national retailer, led the company through bankruptcy restructurings, and acquired several rival companies.
In addition, he is the former CEO of the California Closet Company, where he led the company to record sales and earnings.
Sharon Hagel
Sharon Hagel aims to inspire students to excel in STEAM and education by creating spaceKids Global, a nonprofit organization that focuses on empowering young girls. To date, Sharon has helped nearly 100,000 students worldwide.
Since its inception in 2015, SpaceKids Global has hosted a number of challenges every year to inspire kids to pursue a career in spaceflight, including a national essay contest and a joint event with the Girl Scouts of Citrus County. In addition, the organization is involved in the "Postcard to Space" program of the "Club for the Future" foundation.
Mark Hagel
Mark Hagel is president and CEO of Tricor International, a real estate development company. Under his leadership, the company developed and owned more than 17.4 million square feet of properties across the United States, including shopping malls, warehouses, medical facilities, recreational facilities, pharmacies, and office projects.
It is worth mentioning that Mark and his wife Sharon are also enthusiastic funders of numerous arts, sciences, health and education-related charities.
Lai Gary
Lai Gary joined Blue Origin in 2004 as one of the company's first 20 employees. Currently, he is senior director and chief architect of the new Shepard, responsible for all design, upgrades and development of the rocket business.
Figure | New Shepard Rocket Mission NS-19 (Source: Blue Origin)
Gary is involved in the development, strategic planning and business operations of all of Blue Origin's product lines, including the New Glenn orbital launch vehicle and the Blue Moon lunar vehicle.
While leading the New Shepard project team, he successfully demonstrated the reusability of the New Shepard rocket booster through five successful test flights of a single booster and engine, earning the project a Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautics Association.
Jim Keech
In addition to being a teacher and entrepreneur, Jim Keech is an explorer and has so far visited 193 countries and territories recognized by the United Nations.
As a child, Kirch watched the launch of NASA's Apollo spacecraft in Florida. Since then, he has dreamed of becoming a space adventurer. In the 1980s, as a college student, he promoted space travel in low Earth orbit for a startup.
In addition, Since 2010, Kitch has been at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and teaches students to create for-profit and nonprofit businesses that change the world.
George Nelder
George Nilder founded and served as president of Commercial Space Technologies, where he worked to encourage, promote and facilitate commercial space activities.
Previously, he served as Deputy Director of the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he was responsible for licensing and regulating all commercial launch activities. In addition, he served as a manager for NASA's Space Shuttle Program Flight Integration Office.
Earlier in his career, Nilder held engineering positions at the Air Force Flight Test Center and Orbital Science Corporation, and was an assistant professor and director of research at the U.S. Air Force Officers College.
Up to now, Blue Origin has repeatedly launched and completed the business of sending paying customers into space. In July 2021, Blue Origin successfully flew a manned mission for the first time using the New Shepard, sending four passengers into space, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos and female pilot Wally Funk. Blue Origin then flew two more space flights, including well-known actor William Shatner and host Michael Strahan.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the company, there are also SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and other companies are also stepping into the business of "commercial space journey". In the future, as the maturity of commercial spaceflight becomes higher and higher, it may no longer be a distant thing to be away from more ordinary people to travel to space.
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reference:
https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-20-mission-announcement
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/14/tech/pete-davidson-blue-origin-launch-scn/index.html