June 16, 2024
- On May 19, 2024, Gopi Thotakura, one of the crewmembers of Blue Origin’s New Shepard-25 mission (NS-25), created history by becoming the first Indian to travel to space as a tourist.
- Thotakura, a pilot and entrepreneur, was aboard the spaceflight launched from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas, USA, with five other space tourists.
- The NS-25 was a sub-orbital spaceflight, which took the crew to an altitude of 105kms from Earth and returned to Earth in around 10 minutes.
- Space flight begins around 100kms above Earth after crossing the so-called Kármán line, which is widely considered as the boundary line dividing the Earth’s atmosphere from outer space.
- Thotakura belongs to Andhra Pradesh and currently lives in Georgia, USA.
Image Source: blueorigin.com
