Two years after entering a giveaway, Austin Litteral took off from the Amazon founder’s launch pad
When 38 - year - old father of two Austin Litteral entered an online giveaway promising a trip tospaceaboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ’s New Shepard skyrocket , he never expected to actually win .
So when he got the e-mail saying he ’d been take to join five other crew members on a voyage 62 miles above Earth to the internationally recognise boundary of blank , he was convinced it was a mistake .
“ I assumed it was just a hemipteran , a technical glitch , like they did it wrong , ” he continued . “ I was like , ‘ That ’s really sticky ; they ’re go to have to tell a lot of hoi polloi that they did n’t pull ahead the head trip to space . ’ ”
Illustration by Lille Allen for Thrillist
But it was n’t . In November 2024 — two years after he entered the “ WhatNot To The Moon ” Black Friday game show held by the on-line marketplace appWhatNot — Litteral , a Delaware financial services professional , annul up from Blue Origin ’s launch pad in Van Horn , Texas , to join an elite golf-club of civilians who have traveled to space .
“ Even when I was sitting in the rocket [ before takeoff ] , I maintain on intellection , ‘ Is this really going to happen ? Am I really go to space ? ’ ” Litteral said . “ It just seemed so surreal still , that this was even a possibility . ”
His fellow distance tourist include MIT locomotive engineer andXploration Outer Spacehost Emily Calandrelli ; entrepreneur James ( J.D. ) Russell ; Canadian moneyman and longtime cowcatcher Henry ( Hank ) Wolfond ; and Sharon and Marc Hagle , the first married twosome in space , who were making their 2d stumble aboard Blue Origin ’s roquette .
All of Litteral ’s crew mates paid for their ass . Blue Origin would not disclose the cost , but Bezossaid in 2021that his company had already deal near to $ 100 million in seats on future flight . For mention , the rival space tourism company , Virgin Galactic , charge $ 600,000 for hind end onfuture space flights .
This was the ninth human flight of steps for Blue Origin ’s New Shepard program and the 28th in its 12 - year account . To date , the programme has vaporize 47 humans above the Kármán Line , the internationally recognized edge of space — including fly Bezos himself in 2021 , who called it his “ good day ever . ”
The New Shepard flight of steps ( describe after Alan Shepard , the first American in space ) last about 11 minute from liftoff to touchdown and declare oneself passengers about four moment of weightlessness , where they can see the curvature of the Earth and the Brobdingnagian dark of place .
“ I did n’t expect to see so much infinite , and I keep saying ‘ That ’s our satellite ! That ’s our planet ! ’ " fellow New Shepard crew member Calandrellisaid on social mediaafterward . " It was the same flavour I got when my tike were have , and I was like , ‘ That ’s my infant ! ’ ”
It was a golden faulting for Litteral , a once - aspiringastronautwho had pictures of NASA Space Shuttles plastered all over his rampart as a child . He never prosecute quad , though ; instead , he get down his MBA from Temple University in Philadelphia before launching into a career in finance .
WhileNASAand theFAAmay beg to dissent , Litteral is now technically an prescribed astronaut . At least accord to Merriam - Webster , which defines the title as “ any person who travels beyond the earth ’s atmosphere . ”
“ I think by that stipulation , we ’re spaceman , and I ’m OK with that , ” Litteral said . “ But I keep on telling people , ‘ I went to infinite , and I will let you call me whatever you want . ’ ”
New Shepard ’s passenger are n’t required to do much in flying besides delight the ride . After all , the roquette is amply autonomous ; the New Shepard capsule has no pilot burner .
Then again , putting basically untrained civilian into blank space and consider what happensdoescontribute to the overall subject of how such a flight might affect the average Joe . For this , New Shepard crew members wore biometric health trackers throughout their grooming and the flight to see how the literal pressure of the journey would impact their bodies .
“ It was a big chance to conduce a minuscule bit to the scientific discipline , ” Litteral tell .
Prepping for Space Travel
There are waivers , of grade . And specification .
According to Blue Origin ’s “ Astronaut Experience ” term , all New Shepard passenger must be between 5 feet and 6’4 marvelous and weigh between 110 and 223 pounds . Blue Origin does n’t want a specific medical exam to join the work party , leave it up to each player to “ reach that determination individually and at his / her own expense . ”
Other requirements let in that rider must be able-bodied to rise the New Shepard Launch Tower ( equivalent to 7 flights of stairs ) in under 90 seconds , fasten and unfasten their own fanny harness in under 15 second , and sit down strapped in the abridgement ’s recline seat for up to 90 mo without getting up and without access to a bathroom , among others .
That ’s not to say there wasn’tanytraining for the big daytime . The space traveler make it at Bezos ’ sprawl Texas spread , which serve up as Blue Origin ’s launching land site , three days before the scheduled launch . It was enough time to get wind the rudiments about theNew Shepard capsule , the six - person seedpod that lurch toward the heavens on top of a six - account tall booster station .
It was also long enough to do several simulations in a mock abridgment , where the crew sound over launching protocols and addressed potential malfunctions — including a launch failure scenario that would trigger the rocket ’s escape arrangement ( which would disconnect and move the work party abridgement to safety if a job were find with the booster ) .
The Day of Launch
The crew boarded the capsule about 40 minute before the scheduled 10:30 am liftoff , each settling into their reclining seats beside large windows project for take in the Earth and space .
And then it was go clock time .
At 3 … 2 … 1 , the skyrocket hurl upwards from the desert story . passenger know up to 3Gs of force , traveling three clip the speed of sound .
“ The first few second base , the booster lights , but you do n’t have enough thrust to move yet , so you just are sitting there and waiting , ” Litteral state . “ It ’s probably the prospicient 10 seconds of your liveliness . Then all of a sudden , it ’s just up and up you start to feel the G - forces in your dresser . It feels like somebody ’s standing flop on your chest . ”
About 2.5 mo in , the booster come off and returned to Earth for an sovereign landing place while the ejection seat coast upward toward space .
Reaching 62 stat mi above the Earth , the bunch experienced four minute of zero gravity . They bumped around the little cabin , took a grouping picture , tossed objects into the melody ( including various collectibles Litteral was call for to bring in for a futureWhatNot auction sale ) , and gaze out the windows at Earth and the endlessness of space beyond it .
“ I do n’t think we are telegraph to comprehend that prospect , ” Litteral said . “ It is awesome in the most literal definition of the countersign . ”
No rather does the free - floating existentialism start than it ’s time to lather back into the seats for the plunge back toward Earth , a ride that pushed up to 5.5 Gs , which Litteral felt as “ an intense pressure level ” in his fount . parachute slowed the condensation to about 15 mph before it beat down in the Texas desert .
“ You grow up watching the motion-picture show of NASA launches and they ’re violent , right ? They ’re shake and sweaty and acute , ” he aver . “ This was less than that . I was surprised that it was n’t more acute than it was . ”
This , from a guy wire who let in he does n’t even like hair curler coasters .
When asked if it was worth the risk — peculiarly as a father to two unseasoned children — Litteral said he never feel like he was in peril . And saying no was n’t an option .
“ What kind of example would I be lead if I said no to it because I was afraid ? ” said Litteral , whose daughters are 6 month and 3 twelvemonth former . “ I require my daughters to be open to all the opportunities life sentence has for them — and sometimes these opportunities go beyond what we recall is potential , and sometimes they ’re scary , and sometimes we just have to be a picayune bit brave . ”
