Gopi Thotakura on Sunday became the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army’s Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984 after the company’s seventh human flight lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas.
Washington: Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, on Sunday became the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission.
Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army’s Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
Blue Origin’s seventh human flight, NS-25, lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Sunday morning, the company announced on social media.
This mission was the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. To date, the programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin.
According to Blue Origin, ‘Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive.’
He co-founded Preserve Life Corp, a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.