Andhra-born Gopi Thotakura makes history, becomes first Indian to go to space as tourist

India-born Gopi Thotakura made history on Sunday evening as he became the first Indian citizen to venture into space as a tourist. He was part of the elite crew for Blue Origin’s New Shepard-25 (NS-25) mission, which took off from the company’s West Texas launch site in the US around 8:05 pm (IST), an hour late from its scheduled launch time of 9:35 am (local US time).
Born in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Gopi, an entrepreneur and a pilot, journeyed to the edge of space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere along with five others — Ed Dwight, Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L Hess and Carol Schaller. Ed Dwight (90) is now the oldest man on Earth to go to space.
Gopi has retained his Indian passport despite working in the US. Although he became the first Indian citizen to go to space as a tourist, he is officially the second astronaut from the country after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew as a professional cosmonaut to space on board Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Astronauts Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, Raja Chari, and Sirisha Bandla were all US citizens of Indian origin who also went to space as professional astronauts. TOI had earlier reported on Gopi’s probable entry to the elite astronaut club.
Following takeoff, the NS-25 vehicle reached beyond the boundary of space smoothly. The rocket and capsule then returned to Earth, with the rocket landing upright a few minutes after takeoff. The capsule successfully touched down, using two of its three parachutes, roughly 15 minutes after takeoff. It was Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin’s first crew launch in nearly two years. “Capsule touchdown. Welcome back, NS25 crew!” Blue Origin said in a post on X.
Introducing the Indian space tourist, a Blue Origin statement said, “Gopi Thotakura is a lifelong pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive. He flies jets commercially, in addition to piloting bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes. Gopi is a co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global center for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.”
He studied for a BSc in aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, US. A trained pilot, Gopi had worked in medical air evacuation services in India in the past. “A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro,” the statement said.
In another first, America’s first Black astronaut candidate, Ed Dwight, finally rocketed into space 60 years later. Dwight, a former Air Force captain who was selected in 1961 but never got to fly to space with NASA, finally reached the edge of space — at 90 years, 8 months, and 10 days. He thus became the oldest person to go to space, narrowly surpassing Star Trek actor William Shatner, who was almost two months younger when he launched with Blue Origin in 2021.
This flight is Blue Origin’s first tourist mission on New Shepard since August 2022. The company was forced to halt flights of the rocket after a New Shepard vehicle suffered an engine failure mid-flight during an uncrewed mission in Sep 2022. Blue Origin spent most of 2023 investigating the failure and making design corrections, and the company successfully returned to flight with another uncrewed mission in Dec.
This mission was the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. Earlier, Blue Origin launched six tourist missions, flying celebrities like William Shatner, Michael Strahan, and Bezos himself to space. In all, New Shepard has flown 31 humans above the internationally recognized boundary of space, the company said.
The company, seen as a future key strategic rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, plans to debut a much larger and more powerful New Glenn rocket later this year, capable of launching cargo to orbit. Blue Origin also aims to send humans to the moon later this decade for NASA.