An area dreamer since youth, Jim Kitchen went to area on Thursday, sporting with him Ukraine’s nationwide flag to turn his enhance for the conflict-ridden nation amid the continued Russian invasion.
Team individuals of the New Shepard spacecraft that went to area on Thursday. (Picture: Blue Starting place)
An area dreamer since youth, Jim Kitchen’s want to be in area got here true on Thursday when he, at the side of 5 different staff individuals, went on a temporary trip outdoor the planet at the New Shepard spacecraft introduced through Jeff Bezos-led Blue Starting place.
Recently a professor on the College of North Carolina, his pastime for area shuttle used to be ignited when he had watched NASA’s Apollo Rocket release in Florida, US when he used to be a kid.
His hobby in area tourism endured even in faculty, the place he promoted low Earth orbit area journeys for a startup.
Except for his hobby in area shuttle, Kitchen could also be a globetrotter who has visited over 193 international locations on the earth over time.
On his travel to area, he carried 10 passports with him, together with the one who had Ukrainian stamps on it.
Kitchen had additionally introduced the Ukrainian flag with him to turn his enhance for the folks of Ukraine amid the continued Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The New Shepard spacecraft had taken them on a temporary joyride outdoor the Earth, 100 kilometers above the skin of the planet, with the adventure lasting for over 10 mins. The passengers had unbuckled and floated in 0 gravity for a couple of moments because the spacecraft touched the Karaman line, which is designated because the boundary of area.
Except for Kitchen, the opposite staff individuals incorporated angel investor Marty Allen, actual property veteran Marc Hagle and his spouse Sharon Hagle, George Nield, the founder-president of Business Area Applied sciences, and Garry Lai, senior director and leader architect of New Shepard.
This used to be Blue Starting place’s maiden area project in 2022 and used to be the fourth staff project for the New Shepard spacecraft and the twentieth in its twenty years of building, trying out, and demonstration.