Mark Rocket, CEO of Kea Aerospace, made history by crossing the Kármán line—the edge of space—about 100 kilometres above Earth. This journey made him New Zealand’s first space tourist. The flight took off from Texas on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket at 1:39 a.m. NZ time and landed safely around 1:50 a.m.
The short spaceflight lasted just over 10 minutes. Rocket described the launch as “wonderfully intense,” as the spacecraft sped up to more than 3,400 kilometres per hour within minutes.
During the flight, Rocket and his fellow passengers experienced three minutes of weightlessness. Through the large windows, they saw the dark sky of space above and the bright blue Earth below. Rocket even floated out of his seat and did backflips.
He said the sight of Earth’s curved horizon was amazing, stretching over 1,000 kilometres in every direction.
On the way back, passengers felt strong pressure—up to five times their body weight—as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Despite the intense journey, everyone landed safely.
Rocket thanked his crew and the Blue Origin team, calling the flight an “extraordinary journey.” This mission, called NS-32, was Blue Origin’s 12th human spaceflight, part of a space tourism program started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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