Production engineer Victor Hespanha, a resident of Belo Horizonte, became today (4) the second Brazilian to travel to space. Accompanied by five people, he participated in a suborbital flight of the company Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Takeoff took place at 10:26 am in the city of Van Horns, in the US state of Texas. The flight lasted about ten minutes and reached a top speed of 3,700 kilometers per hour. The capsule with the six passengers landed in the Texas countryside around 10:40 am.
Victor won space travel in a draw among buyers of a non-fungible token (NFT), a kind of digital signature for virtual objects and files. He spent around R$4,000 using cryptocurrencies.
Take-off
This was Blue Origin’s fifth spaceflight. The spacecraft ascends to just above the Karman Line, at 100 kilometers altitude, defined as the beginning of outer space, and then returns to Earth. During the descent, passengers have the sensation of zero gravity.
The ship does not need a pilot to go into space. Takeoff takes place vertically, with the capsule and passengers being launched by a rocket. Three minutes after launch, the rocket separates from the module, which heads towards the Karman Line. The two vessels return to Earth and can be used in other missions.
The first Brazilian to travel to space was the professional astronaut and current Minister of Science and Technology, Marcos Pontes, who went to the International Space Station in 2006.
