India’s first civilian space tourist, Gopichand Thotakura, arrived in Delhi on Monday after completing his trip to space. He had travelled to space as a member of the crew for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company, Blue Origin’s New Shephard-25 (NS-25) mission. Thotakura is an Indian-born aviator and commercial pilot.
On his return to the country, he received a raucous welcome in New Delhi. Thotakura is also an US-based wellness entrepreneur. As he returned, he was honoured to have represented the country on the mission and was now happy to be back home.
But, how was his journey to the space and what all he saw? Well, the whole journey from take-off to landing lasted only about ten minutes. It was during this period that the spacecraft attained a maximum height of 105 km from Earth’s surface. Their trip to space had started on May 19.
| India’s first civilian space tourist Gopichand Thotakura receives a warm welcome on his arrival in Delhi. He travelled to space as part of the crew for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin’s New Shephard-25 (NS-25) mission. — ANI (@ANI) Thotakura had taken a suborbital flight launched from Texas and thus, India wasn’t visible, he had told in an interview to Hindustan Times.
But, he had looked for it. From his flight, he could only spot the Atlantic Ocean and parts of Europe. Had it been a full orbit flight, he would have had the chance to view India from the space.
1O minutes of watching the ‘blue ball�.