Blue Origin rocket launch: fourth manned flight lands after 10 minutes in space

Comedian Pete Davidson dropped out due to 'scheduling' conflict

A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches from Launch Site One in West Texas north of Van Horn on Thursday. AFP

Blue Origin, billionaire Jeff Bezos's private space venture, notched its fourth manned flight on Thursday, landing successfully in rural west Texas after taking a half dozen passengers for a 10-minute suborbital joyride.

The New Shepard spacecraft blasted off at 8.59am CDT (1357 GMT) and the crew capsule separated from the six-storey-tall rocket a short time later as it soared to an altitude of 106 kilometre.

The crew members experienced a few minutes of weightlessness at the very apex of their brief ride before the capsule fell back to Earth to the desert floor under a canopy of three parachutes, landing safely outside the west Texas town of Van Horn.

Paying customers included angel investor Marty Allen, real estate veteran Marc Hagle and his wife, Sharon Hagle, entrepreneur and University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen and George Nield, founder and president of Commercial Space Technologies. All were giddy with excitement as they exited the hatch.

On the ground, Ms Hagle embraced family members and exclaimed: “I want you to do it!”

The flight came two days after it was initially scheduled, with poor weather forcing the mission to be postponed on Tuesday.

“When we got above 100,000 feet, you saw the sky getting darker and darker, it was just gorgeous,” said Mr Nield. “Pictures don't do it justice.”

Unlike Blue Origin's past crewed flights, which featured passenger rosters including Star Trek actor William Shatner, morning TV host Michael Strahan and Mr Bezos himself, nobody on Thursday's flight was particularly famous.

Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson had been confirmed as a non-paying promotional guest on the latest flight, but he dropped out earlier this month when the planned launch was postponed from its original March 23 date to allow time for additional preflight tests.

Days later, the company announced that Davidson, the boyfriend of reality TV star Kim Kardashian, had been replaced on the latest “crew” manifest by veteran Blue Origin designer Gary Lai, architect of the New Shepard reusable launch system.

Mr Lai flew for free.

Mr Bezos, founder of online retail company Amazon, was part of Blue Origin's inaugural crewed flight to the edge of space last July. He accompanied his brother, Mark Bezos, trailblazing octogenarian woman aviator Wally Funk and an 18-year-old Dutch high school graduate.