Gopi Thotakura becomes first Indian space tourist on Blue Origin’s seventh human flight

Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission. 

Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission.

The trip made him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army’s Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.

The company took to social media to announced that the Blue Origin’s seventh human flight, NS-25, lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas on May 19 morning. This mission was the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history.

The programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space till date. 

As per agencies, “Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive.” In addition to flying jets commercially, he pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot.