'Mannequin Skywalker' rides Blue Origin's new crew capsule
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin's 'Mannequin Skywalker' has rocketed almost all the way to space, just in time for the new Star Wars movie.
The aerospace company led by Amazon's Jeff Bezos launched its New Shepard rocket Tuesday from West Texas for the seventh time. It marked the first flight, though, of the latest version of Blue Origin's crew capsule, featuring big windows for future space tourists.
An instrumented test dummy was aboard, named Mannequin Skywalker and dressed in a blue — naturally — flight suit.
"He had a great ride," Bezos said via Twitter.
The New Shepard rocket, named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard, landed back on the ground following the 10-minute suborbital flight.