License to fly into space

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved a license for Blue Origin to fly suborbital spacecraft New Shepard with people on board. This was reported by Reuters on Monday, citing a statement from the regulator.

According to its information, Blue Origin needed to confirm that New Shepard's hardware and software operated safely during the test flight in order to obtain permission. Following the tests, the FAA concluded that it meets regulatory requirements.

As noted, the licence will be valid until August this year.

In June, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he would fly into space with his brother Mark on July 20. The billionaire will travel into suborbital space on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft. This flight will be the first launch of the company's spacecraft with passengers on board, the company previously held 15 tests of its suborbital vehicle, but the passenger role was equipped with sensors mannequin in human size, who was named after Luke Skywalker, one of the heroes of the movie "Star Wars". Tourists are expected to unbuckle their seatbelts and spend about four minutes in weightlessness after reaching the edge of space, after which the capsule with them will begin its descent and land gently on parachutes.