BEZOS FLIGHT ON NEW SHEPARD, July 20, 2021, West Texas, 9:00 am ET

Update, July 12:  Blue Origin announced today that the flight is scheduled for 8:00 am Central Daylight Time (9:00 am Eastern) on July 20, and will be livestreamed on its website beginning at 6:30 am CDT (7:30 am Eastern). A press conference with the astronauts will follow and will also be broadcast on BlueOrigin.com.

The company further advises:

Blue Origin’s Launch Site One is in a remote location in the West Texas desert and there are no on-site public viewing areas in the vicinity of the launch site. The Texas Department of Transportation will be closing a portion of State Highway 54 adjacent to the launch site and will not allow spectators on the closed portion of the road during the launch. 

Original Entry: Blue Origin (and Amazon.com) founder Jeff Bezos will fly aboard his New Shepard suborbital rocket on July 20, 2021 from his launch site in West Texas.

Joining him on this first crewed flight of the reusable system are his brother Mark, 82-year old aviator Wally Funk, and someone who made the high bid of $28 million for the privilege but whose name has not been revealed yet.

New Shepard is a rocket with a crew capsule launched vertically from a launch pad at Blue Origin’s launch site in Wet Texas.  They ascend to an altitude just over the “Karman Line” at 100 kilometers (62 miles) that is used as the international standard of where air ends and space begins. The rocket and capsule separate and both return to land close to their point of departure after about 10 minutes.