Meet the crew of Blue Origin's NS-32 space tourism mission launching on May 31
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Blue Origin's next suborbital flight is scheduled to launch on Saturday (May 31), carrying a diverse crew of educators, entrepreneurs and adventurers united by a shared passion for space and discovery.
The NS-32 suborital mission, which will be Blue Origin's 12th human flight to date, is expected to lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas during a window that opens at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). Blue Origin will stream the launch live, beginning 30 mins prior to launch; Space.com will air the webcast if, as expected, the company makes it available.
The suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, lasting approximately 11 minutes, will carry six civilians with varied professional and personal achievements, highlighting the increasing accessibility of space tourism. Here's some information about the six people who will fly on the NS-32 mission, which Blue Origin provided in a mission update.
As a STEM educator from Galveston, Texas, Amy Medina Jorge has led over 60 student-driven space experiments, including biometric sensor tests and in-flight 3D printing on zero-G flights. Born in Puerto Rico, she advocates for Hispanic representation in STEM fields and was honored with the 2023 AIAA and Challenger Center Trailblazing STEM Educator Award. Her seat is sponsored by Farmacias Similares, a Mexican company focused on social impact and accessible healthcare across Latin America.
A radiologist with over 20 years of clinical experience specializing in women's imaging, Dr. Gretchen Green is also a lifelong space enthusiast. Her journey began with Space Camp in 1986, where she later returned as a Crew Trainer and eventually chaired the Space Camp Alumni Association. She currently serves on the board of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation.
As a nationally recognized expert witness and entrepreneur, Green founded The Expert Resource to help doctors build expert witness practices. Green is also a certified life coach who has biked across the U.S., reached the North Pole, and holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Brown.
A Panamanian attorney and former ambassador to the U.S., Jaime Alemán is also a seasoned traveler, having visited all 193 United Nations-recognized countries, both the North and South Poles — and now he's headed to space. Alemán holds degrees from Notre Dame and Duke Law School and is a senior partner at Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee — a law firm he co-founded in 1985.
He also serves on the board of one of Panama's largest private banks and holds board positions with Special Olympics International, Duke Law School and the Woodrow Wilson Center's Latin America Program.
Canadian entrepreneur Jesse Williams has launched multiple ventures, including eDirect Software, Car History Group and Just Think Media. An avid cyclist and mountaineer, Williams has summited six of the seven highest peaks on Earth, including Mt. Everest. Several symbols on the NS-32 mission patch — bike gears and Mt. Everest — represent his adventurous spirit.
The CEO of Kea Aerospace and president of Aerospace New Zealand, Mark Rocket is set to become the first New Zealander to reach space. Christchurch-based Kea, which was founded in 2018, focuses on developing sustainable aerospace technology aimed at advancing high-altitude flight and environmental monitoring. Rocket was also a seed investor of Rocket Lab, co-directing the company from 2007 to 2011. The kea parrot on the mission patch symbolizes his homeland of New Zealand.
Related stories:
— New Shepard: Rocket for space tourism
— Katy Perry and Gayle King launch to space with 4 others on historic all-female Blue Origin rocket flight
— Blue Origin launches Michael Strahan and crew of 5 on record-setting suborbital spaceflight
A seasoned real estate businessman and global traveler, Paul Jeris' passion for space was sparked early by his father, a NASA engineer. Growing up on Florida's Space Coast, he spent summers watching historic launches of the Apollo, space shuttle, Mariner, Voyager and Viking missions.
A dedicated explorer, Jeris has traveled to over 149 countries with the goal of visiting every nation on Earth. But his ultimate dream has always been to journey into space and witness the planet's beauty from above. He also gives back to the travel community by serving on several local and regional tourism boards.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
21 minutes ago
- Medscape
ADA Issues New MASLD Guidelines
A new consensus report from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) provides a practice-oriented framework for screening and managing metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in people with diabetes and prediabetes. Published online on May 28, 2025, in Diabetes Care, the report is a comprehensive update to the recommendations the ADA released in 2023. It is intended for clinicians treating patients with diabetes — primarily type 2 diabetes (T2D) — but also type 1 diabetes with obesity and prediabetes. Topics covered include the rationale for the recent change in terminology, epidemiology, fibrosis risk stratification, monitoring, treatment, and referral guidance, with interprofessional team management emphasized throughout. 'This will provide primary care doctors and anyone taking care of people with diabetes the tools to diagnose [MASLD] early and guide therapy…to prevent cirrhosis, and refer to the hepatologist as needed for additional therapy and monitoring,' lead author Kenneth Cusi, MD, professor of medicine at the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, told Medscape Medical News . The guidelines recommend that clinicians routinely screen people with T2D or prediabetes for MASLD. 'We explain that the liver should be incorporated into our management in the same way we do for chronic kidney disease, eye disease, and nerve disease as an end-organ damage that is particularly affected by diabetes,' Cusi said. In the United States, at least 70% of people with T2D have MASLD, about half of whom have the more progressive form termed metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH). About 1 in 5 with T2D have advanced liver fibrosis. The presence of MASH increases the risks for complications including cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and overall mortality, according to the new consensus report. Liver disease has not been a focus of diabetes management until recently, Cusi noted. 'We didn't think about it. The epidemic of obesity, and with that, of diabetes, is driving this liver disease. The obesity epidemic has had a big worsening since the 1990s, so this damage in the past 20 or 30 years is just now becoming evident in the liver.' Terminology Change: Highlighting Insulin Resistance, Reducing Stigma The document reviews the current nomenclature for SLD, which was officially changed in 2023 to remove the words 'fatty' and 'alcoholic.' Now, MASLD is defined as the presence of SLD with at least one metabolic risk factor such as obesity, hypertension, prediabetes, high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or T2D, with minimal or no alcohol consumption (< 20 g/d for women; < 30 g/d for men). The term 'MetALD' is used for those with MASLD who also have increased alcohol consumption (20-50 g/d for women; 30-60 g/day for men). Steatosis in the setting of alcohol consumption above those levels is termed 'alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD).' The term MASH is defined as steatohepatitis with at least one metabolic risk factor and minimal alcohol consumption. 'At-risk MASH' refers to steatohepatitis with clinically significant fibrosis (stage F2 or higher). Diagnosis: Staged Screening for Fibrosis The document recommends routine screening of people with T2D, prediabetes, and/or obesity with cardiovascular risk factors, with the goal of identifying those with high-risk MASH. Intervention is then aimed at preventing fibrosis progression and cirrhosis. A graphic diagnostic algorithm advises initial use of the noninvasive Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) tool, which risk stratifies based on age, liver enzymes, and platelet count. 'The FIB-4 is composed of very simple things that are already in the electronic medical record of all patients. We also discuss the role of electronic medical records to improve implementation,' Cusi said. Those with a FIB-4 < 1.3 have a low risk for future cirrhosis and can be managed in primary or team care with optimized lifestyle and repeated FIB-4 every 1-2 years. If the FIB-4 is > 2.67, direct referral to a liver specialist is advised. If FIB-4 is between 1.3 and 2.67, a second risk-stratification test is recommended. Ideally, this would be a liver stiffness measurement (LSM), most commonly with transient elastography. If that is unavailable, an alternative is the noninvasive enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) test. If the LSM is < 8.0 kPa or ELF is < 7.7, the fibrosis risk is low and routine management can continue with repeat testing in 1-2 years. But if higher, hepatology referral is recommended. Treatment: Lifestyle, Plus Old and New Drugs The report details lifestyle modification for MASLD, including nutrition plans; physical activity; behavioral health; and the role of diabetes self-management, education and support. The role of obesity treatment in people with MASLD, both metabolic surgery and pharmacotherapy, is also discussed at length. No current pharmacologic treatments have been approved for MASLD, but both semaglutide and tirzepatide have demonstrated benefit in treating MASH and are approved for treating T2D, obesity, and other related comorbidities. A thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist, resmetirom, was approved in early 2024 for the treatment of MASH with fibrosis stages F2 and F3, but is extremely expensive at about $50,000 a year, Cusi noted. An older, generic glucose-lowering drug, pioglitazone, has also shown benefit in reducing fibrosis and may be a lower-cost alternative. The document also includes a section on alcohol intake, which complicates the MASLD picture, Cusi noted. 'We think that this is going to help doctors to consider alcohol, which is often overlooked and under-reported. If patients have moderate fibrosis, they should completely quit alcohol.' Cusi has received research support (to his institution) from Boehringer Ingelheim, Echosens, Inventiva, Labcorp, and Perspectum, and has served as a consultant for Aligos Therapeutics, Arrowhead, AstraZeneca, 89bio, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novo Nordisk, ProSciento, Sagimet Biosciences, Siemens USA, Zealand Pharma, and Terns Pharmaceuticals.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Palm Beach Police: 'SIM swap' scam tried to steal more than $200,000 from Palm Beacher
Two Westlake residents have been arrested by Palm Beach Police, who say the pair executed an elaborate financial fraud known as "SIM swapping" that attempted to steal more than $200,000 from a Palm Beach resident. And the scheme could extend far beyond the island, police said. The pair were taken into custody May 28, Palm Beach Police spokesman Capt. Will Rothrock said. A 29-year-old woman faces charges of organized fraud and fraudulent use of personal information of a person age 60 or older, and a 31-year-old man was arrested on a charge of fraudulent use of personal information, according to arrest reports. Both remained at the Palm Beach County Jail on May 29. The woman was held without bond, and a Palm Beach County judge ordered that she have no contact with the Palm Beach resident or the man arrested in the case, according to court records. She also cannot have any devices that can access the internet, and she is not allowed to use the phone except to contact her attorney, court records show. The man's bond amount was set at $350,000, and he also cannot use or have any devices that connect to the internet, court records show. He was directed not to contact the Palm Beach resident or the woman, and while in jail, he cannot use the phone except to contact an attorney, according to court records. If he makes bond, he will be on in-home arrest with a GPS monitor, records show. On April 10, a Palm Beach resident called police to say someone had fraudulently accessed his AT&T and bank accounts, and had tried to transfer money and login to several websites, according to an arrest report. The Palm Beach resident said he received a call on April 8 from someone who said they were with AT&T, and that he needed to validate his phone numbers using a code sent to him via text message, an arrest report said. About 20 minutes after that phone call, phone numbers connected to the resident's AT&T account stopped working, police said. The scam is known as "SIM swapping" or "SIM hijacking," according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crime Complaint Center, also called the IC3. Fraudsters will gain control of a person's phone number and then use it to access their banking and other financial and personal accounts, the agency said. The resident provided the code that he received to the person, but later discovered that the code was used to forward his phone number to a different provider, Verizon, police said. By giving that code to the person who said they were from AT&T, he allowed them to complete the final step to move all three of the phone numbers on his account to the other carrier, police wrote in the arrest report. In 2024, there were 982 complaints of SIM swapping with a total reported loss of $25,983,946, the IC3 said in its annual report. The previous year, 1,075 SIM swapping complaints were made with a reported loss of $48,798,103, according to the IC3. Once the phone numbers were transferred, someone tried to withdraw money and make a wire transfer from the Palm Beach resident's bank account, police said. Someone also successfully took over one of the man's email accounts. Transactions made through the resident's accounts included $2,300 sent via Zelle to a St. Petersburg resident, $77.97 spent at a Circle K in The Acreage, $1,500 in ATM withdrawals, and a $215 Venmo payment, an arrest report said. There was also a $4,006.08 payment made to designer clothing retailer Farfetch U.K., along with Airbnb charges of $2,341.79 and $660, an arrest report said. Because the resident was concerned that his Apple account had been compromised, he used the "Find My" feature on his iPhone, which can be used to locate devices connected to an Apple account, police said. The resident saw an unknown iPhone on Liberty Lane in Westlake and told police that he has never been to that address and has no connections there. A Palm Beach Police detective later drove by that address several times and saw two vehicles, a 2022 black Cadillac Escalade and 2024 gray BMW SUV, parked there. Both vehicles were registered to the 31-year-old man, whose driver's license lists an address in North Lauderdale but who police learned was staying at the house in Westlake with the 29-year-old woman, who shares registration on the BMW SUV. Palm Beach Police detectives discovered that the ATM withdrawals from the resident's account were made at a bank in The Acreage, about 2 miles from the house in Westlake, an arrest report said. On April 9, the Palm Beach resident received a request to wire transfer $138,237, which was unsuccessful, police said. That same day, there was another request for a wire transfer for $82,469. The banker in that case confirmed the wire with who he believed to be the account holder, and the transfer was initiated, police said. However, once the resident received an email to confirm the transfer, he called the bank's fraud team and was able to secure the money, but it could take up to three months to get that money back, the arrest report said. Both wire transfer requests were made to a Pompano Beach resident, police said. The resident hired a private investigator who recovered photos taken by the Liberty Lane-located iPhone after someone took over the resident's Apple account, police said. Data for seven photos show all were taken at that home in Westlake, according to the arrest report. On May 7, a Palm Beach Police detective talked with a person in Las Vegas, Nevada, who had been the victim of a similar scheme and had reported the crime to the FBI. That person gave police about 50 images someone took after gaining control of his Apple account, and officers found data that connected the photos back to the Westlake address. The images provided by the person in Nevada also included photos of driver's licenses, passports, bank account numbers, emails and more, an arrest report said. When Palm Beach Police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office searched the Westlake home on a warrant on May 5, they found the 29-year-old woman and 31-year-old man, along with a Louis Vuitton backpack, three iPhones, two pairs of sunglasses and a yellow notebook with "Work $" written on it, the arrest report said. Inside the notebook, officers said they found bank account details, Social Security numbers, addresses, names and more personal details about more than 50 people in Florida and across the United States. Officers also said they found electronic devices and a ledger that contained the Palm Beach resident's personal information. They also took $15,243 in cash from the woman's bedroom, the arrest report said. Detectives determined that once the couple gained access to a person's phone line, they could "circumvent two-factor authentication and gain access to victims' financial accounts, resulting in substantial unauthorized wire transfers and fraudulent transactions," the arrest report said. Palm Beach has cautioned residents to be wary of potential scams. "Most of these cases nationally go unsolved," Rothrock said. "The work and tenacity that our detectives put into this to follow the leads to the end and bring a successful conclusion are noteworthy." He added that the department is grateful for PBSO's help in the investigation, including to serve the search warrant. "Finding local perpetrators was a rarity and did make the investigation coordination smoother," Rothrock said. Those who believe they may have been victims of the scam should call the Palm Beach Police Department's non-emergency number at 561-838-5454, he said. This story was updated to add new information. Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@ Subscribe today to support our journalism. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach 'SIM swap' scam could extend across U.S., police say
New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Man City pursuing deal to sign Rayan Ait Nouri from Wolves
Manchester City are pursuing a deal to sign Rayan Ait Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers. Agreements still need to be reached between the clubs and with the 23-year-old — however all parties now expect a move to happen. Ait Nouri has emerged as City's top target to strengthen at left-back after four impressive seasons since joining Wolves on a permanent basis, which followed a loan spell, from Angers. Advertisement Pep Guardiola's side are working to secure the Algeria international and further recruits before the Club World Cup in the United States this summer. Premier League clubs voted to approve allowing the window to open on June 1 before closing on June 10, with the tournament kicking off four days later. City face Wydad AC, Al Ain and Juventus in Group G of the newly-expanded competition. Ait Nouri has made 157 appearances for Wolves since joining the Midlands club, initially on loan, in 2020. He made 41 appearances in all competitions this season, scoring five goals and adding seven assists. Central defender Josko Gvardiol was City's most regular left-back before academy graduate midfielder Nico O'Reilly starred in the position over the final months of the campaign. ()
