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Blue Origin's 10th human flight, NS-30, will lift off from Launch Site in West Texas on Tuesday, February 25.
Tushar Shah will be the one of the six crew members who will fly aboard the New Shepherd rocket owned by Blue Origin promoted by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
Blue Origin's 10th human flight, NS-30, will lift off from Launch Site in West Texas on Tuesday, February 25.
The word Tushar meaning snow, ice, winter, cold and fine drops of water has its roots in the Sanskrit word Tushara.
His fellow travellers are Lane Bess, Jesus Calleja, Elaine Chia Hyde, Dr Richard Scott and an undisclosed sixth crew member.
Blue Origin described Tushar as a private and low key person. He is a partner and co-head of research at a quantitative hedge fund in New York City.
He studied physics as an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and high energy experimental particle physics for his PhD, also at MIT.
He and his wife Sara are philanthropists focused on addressing issues related to poverty, health, and education. They have two children, Blue Origin said.
The other crew members of New Shepherd 30 are:
Lane Bess
Lane is the Principal and Founder of Bess Ventures and Advisory, a family office fund supporting technology firms that innovate and disrupt across multiple market sectors.
He has led and built some of the world's largest cybersecurity companies, including Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler, both of which he helped lead to an IPO.
Lane also serves as a trustee at Carnegie Mellon University and supports philanthropic interests across health and social issues. Lane first flew to space on NS-19 on December 11, 2021.
Jesus Calleja
Jesus is a Spanish TV host, mountaineer, pilot, and lifelong adventurer. He currently hosts Calleja Planet, Flying By, and Calleja Universe, which air on Mediaset channels in Spain.
Jesus's adventures have taken him to every corner of the world, including the Seven Summits, the North and South Poles, and numerous deserts, active volcanoes, and ancient sinkholes.
A passionate race car driver, Jesus has participated in numerous international racing competitions, including four editions of the Dakar Rally and a 3,400-mile journey from the French Pyrenees to Dakar, Senegal.
Elaine Chia Hyde
Elaine is an entrepreneur, physicist, and pilot. She is the founder of Chicago Star, a news and media company, and Eastside Enterprises, a research and development company focused on AI-assisted media products.
Elaine was born in Singapore and grew up in Australia. Space has captivated her imagination since childhood.
A graduate of the University of Melbourne, she studied business and physics with the goal of inventing experiments to be conducted in space.
Elaine soon immigrated to the United States, where she worked as an intern at the University of Pennsylvania and later became a research scientist.
Elaine, her husband, also a physicist, and their five children live in Florida.
Dr Richard Scott
Dr Scott is a reproductive endocrinologist, embryologist, professor, research scientist, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and avid pilot.
He was a founding partner and CEO of IVIRMA Global, the world's largest fertility care group with clinics and laboratories in 10 countries.
Dr Scott is an adjunct professor at Yale University and the University of South Carolina (Greenville) Medical Schools, and founded The Foundation for Embryonic Competence, a nonprofit focused on reproduction research, where he also serves as scientific director.
He has served on the national boards of Directors of the Resolve and the American Fertility Associations, the two largest patient advocacy organizations for fertility care.
He and his wife have been married for 45 years and have four children.
According to Blue Origin, the rocket is named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
New Shepard is a fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight from the beginning.
During the 11-minute journey, astronauts soar past the Karman line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognised boundary of space, exper iencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing life-changing views of Earth. The vehicle is fully autonomous--there are no pilots.
The six seater pressurised crew capsule has a large window for all the seats and it lands back on earth with the help of three huge parachutes. The rocket also returns to earth.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com