Kazakhstan’s first woman space tourist returns to Earth

The historic spaceflight of Kazakhstani entrepreneur Danna Karagussova, who participated as a space tourist aboard the New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle operated by Blue Origin, the company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was successfully completed. Her son, Aituar Alibekov, reported Karagussova’s safe return to Earth on Threads.

«She’s back. The first space tourist from Kazakhstan and the CIS. Love you, Mom, and so proud,» he wrote.

Ahead of the flight, Alibekov shared that Kazakhstan had recently been presented to the entire team. Inspired by this, the crew decided to nickname themselves the Space Nomads.

According to SciNews, the New Shepard reusable launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas, on Oct. 8, 2025. Six passengers — Jeff Elgin, Dr. Clint Kelly III, Aaron Newman, Vitalii Ostrovsky, Danna Karagussova, and a crew member who requested anonymity — were aboard the New Shepard RSS First Step capsule, marking the 15th New Shepard human flight and the 16th launch and landing of the New Shepard (NS4) vehicle.