On Oct. 13, the actor William Shatner and three others boarded a rocket and were shot 62 miles into the sky, to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, heralding a new era of commercial space tourism. Captain Kirk’s vessel: the New Shepard rocket, a nimble, 59-ft.-tall booster and capsule designed and built by Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by former Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. The rocket has so far carried two crews of space tourists on brief, 11-minute hops to space. It uses clean-burning liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel and is entirely reusable, with the capsule portion descending by parachute and the booster portion returning to Earth under its own engine power and landing upright. Interested in blasting off yourself? Unfortunately, Blue Origin has not yet announced a price for New Shepard tickets or a date when they will be publicly offered. —Jeffrey Kluger
- 2022 Time100 NEXT: TIME’s List Of Emerging Leaders Who Are Shaping the Future
- Industrial Farming Causes Climate Change. The ‘Slow Food’ Movement Wants to Stop It
- What Reading 220 History Textbooks Taught One Scholar About Racism in America
- Artist Oliver Jeffers Wants to Paint the World Out of a Corner
- A Vibrant North Korean Community in London Finds Its Days Are Numbered
- COVID-19 Vaccines Can Make Periods Longer, Study Says
- Column: What Happened When My Entire Family Came Out
- How DeSantis Handles Hurricane Ian Will Shape His Political Future
- 6 Groups Making Mental Health Care More Accessible to People of Color
