Tenth Test Flight Carried Eight NASA Payloads

Blue Origin has made its 10th successful test flight with its New Shepard rocket, launching multiple payloads, including eight NASA experiments, to an altitude of 66 miles on Wednesday.

Space.com reports that the rocket lifted off at the company's West Texas launch complex at 10:05 a.m. local time. The flight lasted 10 minutes and 15 seconds, and the New Shepard touched down on its landing pad as designed. The capsule returned to Earth under a parachute, landing on the Texas plains.

On the live video commentary during the launch, Blue Origin's Ariane Cornell, director of astronaut and orbital sales called the flight "absolutely spectacular," adding "That, everybody, is a reusable rocket."

"At NASA, technology drives exploration," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement recorded before the flight. "These NASA-supported experiments will help advance in-space propulsion technologies habitation systems, science instruments and other capabilities crucial for exploration. Like the researchers, I'm excited to learn the results from this very important flight."

The launch was the fourth for this particular New Shepard booster. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos still hopes to be carrying paying passengers on suborbital flights in the near future, perhaps as early as this year. But the company has not started selling flight positions, or announced a firm cost for a seat.

(Image from Blue Origin launch video)

FMI: Source report, www.blueorigin.com