According to one of his tweets:
“Only 4% of the world recognizes a lower limit of 80 km or 50 miles as the beginning of space. New Shepard flies above both boundaries. One of the many benefits of flying with Blue Origin.”
In another tweet, he compared his Blue Origin to Virgin Galactic. And in his view, Blue Origin was definitely better.
From the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name. For 96% of the world’s population, space begins 100 km up at the internationally recognized Kármán line. pic.twitter.com/QRoufBIrUJ
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) July 9, 2021
The comparison sounds good. But keep in mind that Virgin Galactic has flown humans to space on three occasions. SpaceX Elon Musk is years ahead of them both in space accomplishments. And Bezos is still a “space virgin.”
As Branson says….”Game on.”
How high should they go?
Bezos’ tweet may be a little misleading about the 100 km space boundary, as well. Both the US Air Force and the US Federal Aviation Administration have designated 80 km as the space boundary.
And although the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) still uses 100 km as the demarcation line, there is a move to lower it to 80 km, due to “recently published analyses that present a compelling scientific case for reduction in this altitude.” according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist Jonathan McDowell.
