[sanderjd]

Yeah I expected an orbit too. But it was their first manned mission, so I think it makes sense that it was a simpler thing. But it shouldn't have been such big news. It only was because there was a billionaire on board, and that's really dumb.

[yreg]

It was news because it was the first manned flight of a private launch provider. That doesn't happen often and it is an important milestone.

[sanderjd]

I dunno, that's "news" to be sure; certainly space nerds should care a lot, but they played the entire flight on The Today Show (I watched it). They did not play the entirety of the first manned SpaceX flight, which was a much bigger deal because (I'm pretty sure?) it was the first private manned launch. I'm not saying this flight wasn't news, I'm saying it wasn't mainstream news, except that it happened to have Jeff Bezos on it, and he's a celebrity because he's a billionaire. And that's a lame reason for it to be mainstream news, in my view. I don't love the celebrity billionaire stuff.

[DocTomoe]

Part of the reason for that is that Blue Origin's flight was about 12 minutes in total, while SpaceX's first manned mission was closer to six months.

[sanderjd]

Fair.