03.08.2025 18:16

TRON founder Justin Sun's long-awaited journey to space finally materialized on Sunday morning. He embarked on a suborbital flight aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, fulfilling a commitment made four years prior. This marked the culmination of a considerable wait, as Sun initially secured his seat in 2021 through a record-breaking $28 million auction bid, intended to benefit Jeff Bezos' space-focused charity, Club for the Future.

The 7:42 a.m. launch from West Texas propelled Sun and five fellow passengers – Arvi Bahal, Gökhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, and JD Russell – to the edge of Earth's atmosphere. This ten-minute escapade, Blue Origin's fourteenth human spaceflight, reached its peak altitude (apogee) at 8:47 a.m., before a smooth parachute landing just before 9 a.m. The entirely autonomous capsule, requiring no pilot, traversed the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, approximately 100 kilometers above sea level.

The experience, according to Blue Origin, afforded passengers several minutes of weightlessness and breathtaking views of the planet from space. The NS-24 mission, as it was designated, involved a diverse crew encompassing a real estate investor, a Turkish businessman, a meteorologist and journalist, a teacher, and a venture capital founder. Blue Origin publicly confirmed the successful mission's completion with celebratory messages, highlighting the safe return of the crew.

Following the successful flight, Phil Joyce, Blue Origin's Senior Vice President, released a statement expressing pride in the accomplishment and the diverse backgrounds of the crew. The reusable nature of the New Shepard system underscores Blue Origin's commitment to making space travel more accessible, a vision further exemplified by Sun's journey, finally realized after a considerable delay.