Blue Origin is back in action after more than a year’s hold on launches. Ir successfully launched New Shepard rocket in its first mission in more than 15 months on Tuesday. Blue Origin New Shepard rocket was lifted off after a series of delays, with an uncrewed manifest of NASA scientific payloads making it to space.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket lifted off from the company’s West Texas site on Tuesday around 11:44 a.m. EST (1644 GMT) after brief holds on launch day. Earlier Blue Origin launch date was December 18, but scrubbed the attempt due to a “ground system issue” at its Launch Site One pad.
Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launch
“Capsule touchdown! Congrats to Team Blue on today’s successful mission,” Blue Origin posted on X.
The first stage of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket touched down nearby its launching site, as planned. The spacecraft descended to Earth under parachutes in a livestream from Blue Origin. New Shepard is by Blue Origin for space tourism as well as payloads, though the next flight with humans has not yet been announced.
Like the September 2022 flight, today’s Blue Origin mission known as NS-24, because it will be the 24th overall liftoff for New Shepard was uncrewed. It carried 33 research payloads, more than half of them “developed and flown with support from NASA,” as per Blue Origin’s mission description.
“Others come from K-12 schools, universities, and STEAM-focused organizations,” they added. (STEAM stands for “science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.”)
Blue Origin’s Club for the Future
New Shepard launch will also tote 38,000 postcards for Club for the Future, a nonprofit founded by Blue Origin that aims to get young people interested in space science and exploration.
Blue Origin’s space tourism
While Blue Origin has not yet released its first launch date with humans on board, it is getting ready to fly a wider variety of customers. Launch commentators pointed out an elevator added to the launch tower, in a collaboration with accessibility company AstroAccess. AstroAccess’s founder, Dylan Taylor, was a Blue Origin customer himself on NS-19.
“We have added an elevator; accessibility is really important here at Blue,” launch commentator Erica Wagner said on the livestream.
Blue Origin competitor
Blue Origin’s main competitor for space tourism, Virgin Galactic, has flown several missions in recent months. But Virgin is expected to pause its own monthly flight pace soon to upgrade its fleet. Once the upgrade is finished, Virgin may fly as frequently as once per month.\
New Glenn another project by Blue Origin
New Shepard’s expected return to flight comes as Blue Origin is racing to deliver on another key project: It’s developing a massive rocket called New Glenn that’s capable of hauling satellites and other large payloads into orbit.
That rocket is years overdue. And the same engines that will power New Glenn’s rocket booster, the BE-4 engines, will also fuel a new line of rockets developed by United Launch Alliance. United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to launch its first mission, delivering a NASA-sponsored lander to the moon, in January.
New Glenn likewise has an important first launch on the horizon, potentially carrying a NASA satellite to study the magnetized area of space around Mars as soon as next year.
Bezos admitted during last week’s podcast interview that he is “extremely nervous” about the first launch of New Glenn.
