money and energy trying to solve problems here on earth. so what do you say to those critics? well, i say they re largely right. we have to do both. you know, we have lots of problems here and now on earth and we need to work on those. and we always need to look to the future. we ve always done that as a species, as a civilization. we have to do both. and what our job at blue origin is to do and what this space tourism mission is about is having a mission where we can practice so much that we get really good at operational space travel, more like a commercial airliner and less like what you think of traditional space travel. if we can do that, then we ll be building a road to space for the next generations to do amazing things there. and those amazing things will solve problems here on earth. and by the way, maybe it will be oliver. he s 18 years old. maybe he ll found a space company that uses the infrastructure that this generation is building right now.
engineers, making it the first fully automated space tourism mission. yes, nine days ago we thought sir richard branson, he went with three other passengers. we saw sir richard branson. this time, you will see when the new shepherd launches, they will just be four people see when the new shepherd launches, they willjust be four people on board, all civilians was not a fully autonomous flight. it is quite something, when you think about it, there will be travelling 62 miles above the earth s surface, no pilot on board. there will be a huge number of personal emission control, they will rocket up to 62 miles above the earth s surface, that internationally recognised boundary of space and they will have just eight fewer minutes up there where they will be able to float weightless and experience that few of us before they descend firstly in a freefall, so going out without a human pilot, fully autonomous, and a