1st New Zealander reaches space on Blue Origin flight
May 31 (UPI) -- Blue Origin's 12th human spaceflight carried the first New Zealander into space and back on Saturday morning in West Texas.
The flight carried six passengers beyond the Karman Line, which is the internationally established boundary between space and Earth's atmosphere at an elevation of 62 miles, Space.com reported.
Among the passengers was Mark Rocket, who is an aerospace executive from Christchurch, New Zealand, and is that nation's first citizen to reach space.
Rocket changed his surname many years ago in honor of his passion for space travel, TVNZ1 reported on May 22.
"Ever since I was a kid, I've always been fascinated by space technology and space travel," he said. "We live in a solar system, which is vast; a galaxy, which is vast; and this incredible universe, which is just hard to imagine."
Rocvket's fascination with space led to a career in aerospace, and before the flight he said he was looking forward to experiencing "3Gs of rocket-powered flight up to space."
Rocket is the president of Aerospace New Zealand and ownsKea Aerospace, which is developing a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft capable of reaching the stratosphere to collect high-resolution data of the Earth below it.
Other crew members
The flight also carried K-12 STEM teacher Aymette Medina Jorge, former Panamanian ambassador to the United States Jaime Aleman and radiologist GretchenGreen into space, according to Blue Origin.
Also aboard the spaceflight were businessman Jesse Williams and entrepreneur Paul Jeris.
The six passengers were weightless for about three minutes while getting a unique view of the world from space.
Upon landing back on Earth, Green called the experience "perfection."
"There are very few things in life that were true perfection," Green told Space.com. "When I looked out at space and back down to the Earth, [it] was perfect."
32nd successful spaceflight
The spaceflight was the 32nd for Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin and its New Shepard program and launched at 8:39 a.m. CDT from Blue Origin's Launch Site One about 30 miles north of Van Horn near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The New Shepard launch vehicle included the capsule that carried its passengers and a booster rocket. The capsule and booster rocket are reusable.
The booster rocket separated from the capsule about 2.5 minutes into the flight, which allowed the capsule to continue its ascent into space before returning to Earth.
The autonomous capsule used a propulsive system to slow its descent while making a vertical landing on a concrete pad near where it launched.
New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space in 1961 and 10 years year was the fifth person to walk on the moon.
The program is intended the ferry humans and scientific payloads into space.
"We thank our customers for trusting us to give them the opportunity to appreciate Earth's fragility from above," said Phil Joyce, senior vice president of New Shepard.
Joyce said the experience "truly transforms those who embark on it."
Blue Origin's New Shepard program has carried 64 people into space and back, including singer Katy Perry and CBS broadcast Gayle King.
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15 years of launches from Florida: Rise of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
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To date, Blue Origin's New Glenn and ULA's Atlas V have only launched once each this calendar year — making only two of the current 47 launches not having been SpaceX rockets. The rapidly flying Falcon 9 rocket has been transformative not only in forcing competitors to chase its reusability, but it also has opened up space in a way previously unimaginable. For example, space was financially out of reach for businesses who wanted to launch small satellites. The reusability of Falcon 9 drastically brought down costs, with private space companies able to launch their payload as part of SpaceX's Ride Share Program for as low as $325,000. To date, private companies have worked to create and successfully fly a multistage rocket with a reusable first stage booster. This was most recently seen with Blue Origin's New Glenn, which sent payload to orbit, but did not stick the landing on the landing platform. As New Glenn has not flown since, Falcon 9 continues to lead. The Falcon 9 also took on key contracts with NASA, delivering not only science missions, but astronauts to orbit. Falcon 9 has even sent NASA science missions to the moon and beyond. In addition to launches for NASA, Falcon 9 has been tapped to fly national security and military payloads to orbit. While ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan rockets have been tapped for national security missions, Falcon 9 leads in this category as well. But, perhaps, what it's best known for is simply how often it launches. Falcon 9 rockets fly almost twice a week from the Space Coast, and the rocket also launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It's most often carrying SpaceX's Starlink satellites into orbit. Starlink beams internet across the globe to paying customers. As Falcon 9 launches into its 15th year, here's a look back on how Falcon 9 came to be and some of its key milestones. Before there was Falcon 9, there was Falcon 1. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who sought to create a rocket that would not only lower launch costs, but make humanity a spacefaring species. The company took the first steps with its Falcon rocket, which was named for the Stars Wars Millennium Falcon. The single engine Falcon 1 rocket first launched on March 24, 2006, from Kwajalein Atoll, which is in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The launch was a failure — as were the following two. Falcon 1 reached orbit on its fourth flight in September of 2008. This made SpaceX the first privately funded company to reach orbit with a liquid-fueled rocket. The fifth and last flight of the Falcon 1 was in July 2009 − as SpaceX's new nine-engine Falcon rocket was ready for debut from Cape Canaveral. The space shuttle's days were numbered as NASA waited for SpaceX to successfully launch its Falcon 9 rocket, which would carry SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to orbit. 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The first occurrence was on April 8, 2016 – following a resupply mission to the ISS from Space Launch Complex 40. Earlier attempts ended in mishaps on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, including a booster landing on its side and breaking apart in January 2015. Of Course I Still Love You has since moved to the West Coast to support the growing number of launches from Vandenburg. The drone ships supporting Florida are Just Read the Instructions and A Shortfall of Gravitas. The triple Falcon 9 heavy lift rocket, known as a Falcon Heavy, first took off on February 6, 2018, from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. The mission carried a test payload, which was a red Tesla Roadster with a SpaceX mannequin inside. The car was released into space. Following the launch, the two side boosters landed on Landing Zones 1 and 2 in Cape Canaveral, creating double sonic booms throughout the Space Coast. SpaceX tried, but failed to recover the core Falcon 9 booster of the triple rocket. That aim has proved difficult, and SpaceX currently does not even attempt it anymore. This is most likely due to an effort to save fuel and get higher masses to orbit. The heavy lift rocket has since flown multiple missions. The most recent launch was Europa Clipper back in October 2024. The next Falcon Heavy launch date has yet to be revealed. SpaceX's satellite internet constellation, known as Starlink, first launched a batch of satellites from Florida in May 2019. Now launching from both coasts, the constellation boasts more than 6000 satellites in orbit. Starlink launches have become almost routine in Florida, with an average of two Starlink launches per week from Cape Canaveral. The Starlink satellites provide internet in some of the most remote places on Earth, including underserved areas and even out at sea. It is even utilized on SpaceX's private missions, allowing astronauts to stay connected while orbiting Earth. While the world was deep in a pandemic, SpaceX became the first private company to carry NASA astronauts to orbit and back − and the first private company ever to carry humans to orbit. The year was 2020. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully flew an uncrewed mission to the ISS in 2019. That mission was followed up with the Demo 2 mission on May 30, 2020, which saw the Falcon 9 rocket launch a Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the ISS. The mission not only certified Dragon to carry NASA astronauts, but was the first to launch humans to orbit from America since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. To date, that SpaceX/NASA Commercial Crew contract has reached a worth of $4,927,306,350 as SpaceX will continue NASA astronaut transportation into the 2030s. Falcon 9 has since launched Dragon on an additional 10 crewed NASA missions, three crews for Axiom Space, and three private spaceflights. 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"It's quite difficult to transport such a large thing." Until Starship successfully flies from Texas and then Florida, the Falcon 9 will continue to be SpaceX's workhorse rocket. And just recently, SpaceX proposed an increase to 120 launches per year from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40, as well as a new booster landing zone. It is evident Falcon 9 launches will not be slowing down in the near future. Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@ or on X: @brookeofstars. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket first launched from Cape Canaveral 15 years ago
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Alan Brady planted the first vines at Gibbston Valley in the early 1980s, pioneering Pinot Noir in Central Otago. By 1987, the winery had released the region's first commercial bottling. One of its standout vineyards today is Glenlee, a north-facing site with stony glacial soils that produce deeply structured fruit. The 2021 Glenlee Pinot Noir comes from a vintage that started cool and finished warm and dry — a combination that allowed the fruit to ripen slowly and evenly. It opens with blackberry and floral aromatics, followed by red fruit and wild herbs on the palate. The structure is firm but not heavy, and the finish is long, elegant, and precise. A great pick for dad's who prefer a more fragrant, layered Pinot. Wine to Find: Glenlee Pinot Noir, 2021, $80 One of Central Otago's leading wineries, Felton Road has been a leader in both biodynamic farming and its vision for the region. 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Forbes
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In Photos: June's ‘Great Aurora' Stuns Skywatchers Around The World
The great aurora of May 31/June 1, 2025, here looking straight up in a 360° panorama, with the ... More horizon all around and the zenith at centre. This records the entire sky during the peak of the substorm at about 1:30 am with the curtains lighting up with a range of colours blending together. A rare and powerful geomagnetic storm dazzled skywatchers across the globe last weekend, with the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) and Southern Lights (aurora australis) visible far from polar regions, with images of multi-colored curtains, coronas and rays across social media. People look at Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, as it glows on the horizon over ... More Lake Ellesmere in Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Sanka VIDANAGAMA / AFP) (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images) The spectacular event was triggered by a massive coronal mass ejection — a cloud of charged particles hurled into space from the sun — lit up skies in Canada, the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and beyond for over 60 hours between Saturday, May 31 to Tuesday, June 3, 2025. A man takes visuals of Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, as it glows on the ... More horizon over Lake Ellesmere in Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Sanka VIDANAGAMA / AFP) (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images) The spectacular event was triggered by a massive coronal mass ejection — a cloud of charged particles hurled into space from the sun — lit up skies in Canada, the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and beyond for over 60 hours between Saturday, May 31 to Tuesday, June 3, 2025. The great aurora of May 31/June 1, 2025, in a ~240° panorama from northeast at left, to ... More northwest at right, taken as a substorm was hitting, and the sky was lighting up with bright and colourful curtains. Here the curtains had moved mostly to the south, at centre here, after an initial appearance at the start of the night as a diffuse band across the north. However, moments after this as the substorm peaked, the sky filled with aurora, captured in an all-sky circular panorama. As Earth approaches the solstice on June 21, typical locations in the Northern Hemisphere where the aurora oval hangs over — such as polar latitudes near 70 degrees North — currently have no hours of darkness. That makes the U.S. currently one of the best places to see the Northern Lights. The great aurora of May 31/June 1, 2025, here with a burst of red appearing for a brief time amid ... More the curtains to the east as a substorm hit boosting the brightness and colours. On this night the Kp index peaked at Kp8, unusually high. However, to the eye the aurora still remained dimmer and colourless, except for moments like this when some reds did show up to the eye. Technical: A single 5-second exposure with the Viltrox 16mm lens at f/1.8 on the Nikon Z6III at ISO 400. A long-lasting G4 geomagnetic storm, it was one of the most vivid displays of aurora in Solar Cycle 25, which is currently in its solar maximum period. The sun has an 11-14-year cycle during which its magnetic activity waxes and wanes. It wasn't, however, as powerful as the G5 geomagnetic storm last weekend that saw aurora seen from as far south as California. A man takes visuals of Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, as it glows on the ... More horizon over Lake Ellesmere in Lincoln on the outskirts of Christchurch on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Sanka VIDANAGAMA / AFP) (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images) The long display was initially triggered by a powerful M8.2-class solar flare on May 31, which launched a fast-moving 'halo CME' — an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection. It began interacting with Earth's magnetosphere early on June 1, triggering a G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm, with the Kp index peaking at 8 — high enough to expand the auroral oval well into mid- and low-latitude regions. The great aurora of May 31/June 1, 2025, here with particularly colourful curtains to the east as a ... More substorm hit boosting the brightness and colours. On this night the Kp index peaked at Kp8, unusually high. However, to the eye the aurora still remained dimmer and colourless, except for moments like this when some reds did show up to the eye. This is a wide-angle lens framing from the horizon to near the zenith at top. Technical: A single 5-second exposure with the Viltrox 16mm lens at f/1.8 on the Nikon Z6III at ISO 800. In the U.S., aurora was seen as far south as southern Nebraska, Missouri, and even parts of New Mexico. States including Oregon, Wyoming, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts also witnessed views of the aurora. According to auroras were captured on the Gulf Coast at latitude 30 degrees North — a very rare event that reflects the storm's exceptional intensity. This photo taken on June 1, 2025 shows the aurora seen at the outskirts of Canberra, Australia. ... More (Photo by Chu Chen/Xinhua via Getty Images) Outside North America, both aurora borealis and aurora australis were seen in abundance. Canada experienced sky-filling displays, while colorful Southern Lights were seen from southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. The geomagnetic storm began to wane on June 2, but minor (G1) to strong (G3) storms persisted into June 3, keeping high-latitude skywatchers on alert. The Aurora borealis, commonly known as the northern lights, is seen at Cleveland Dam Park on June ... More 03, 2025 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by) The Northern Lights are a result of the solar wind, which consists of charged particles emitted by the sun that interact with Earth's magnetic field. While much of this solar wind is deflected by the magnetic field, some charged particles travel along the magnetic field lines toward the polar regions where they enter. These particles collide with and excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms, causing them to release energy as light. This photo taken on June 1, 2025 shows a view of aurora and a dashing meteor in Jixian County of ... More Shuangyashan City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo by Han Yang/Xinhua via Getty Images) Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
