UAE adventurer Hamish Harding blasts off to space on Blue Origin flight

A UAE-based businessman and adventurer successfully achieved his life-long dream to reach space on Saturday, June 4.

Hamish Harding, a business jet pilot and chairman of Action Aviation, set out on a mission to the high frontier as part of the crew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard (NS)-21 flight into space.

New Shepard’s 21st mission lifted off from Launch Site One in rural West Texas at 5.26pm UAE time. A Dubai resident for 14 years, Harding was one of the six people on the brief trip to space that was initially supposed to take off on May 20. The planned lift off was delayed due to a vehicle issue.

The NS-21 took Harding and crew members 106 km above the ground. At 5.29pm, NS21 crew were able to unbuckle, experiencing weightlessness and enjoy breathtaking views of Earth from space. Four minutes after take-off, Harding and his crew members reached apogee above the Karman Line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.

The capsule carrying the astronauts touched down back at 5.36pm.

Harding flew into space alongside an esteemed crew called ‘Natural Selection’. They are: investor and NS-19 astronaut Evan Dick; electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta; civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha; adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson; and explorer and co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo, Commander, USN (Retd.).

“I’ve always wanted to do this (fly to space)…and the sheer experience of looking out of the window while doing this is what I’m looking forward to the most,” said Harding in a previous interview.

In 2021, then 49-year-old Harding dived the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world, with Victor Vescovo in a two-person submarine.

Harding’s company Action Aviation deals in buying and selling business jets. He got his nascent World Record two and a half years ago for the fastest circumnavigation of the earth via both poles in a Gulfstream 650ER business jet.

Each astronaut on board NS-21 will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future. He took a cup along that had a written dedication from his wife.

Hamish has travelled to the South Pole twice, apart from holding several aviation world records.

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