New Shepard Launch Vehicle Makes Ready for June Flight

Blue Origin LLC, the American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Kent, WA has announced  its NS-21 mission will lift off from Launch Site One—in Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas—on Saturday, 04 June 2022.

The launch window opens at 08:00 CDT [13:00 Z]. The mission will be the fifth crewed flight of the company’s New Shepard launch vehicle which, as of 31 March 2022, has transported twenty passengers into space.

The mission crew comprises: Evan Dick, Blue Origin investor and NS-19 Astronaut; Katya Echazarreta, electrical engineer and former NASA technician; Hamish Harding, business jet pilot and Action Aviation Chairman; Victor Correa Hespanha, civil production engineer; Jaison Robinson, adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder; and Victor Vescovo, Commander, USN (Ret.), explorer and co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity. 

Originally scheduled to launch on May 20, the flight was delayed due to a back-up system not meeting the "expectations for performance.” The revised, 04 June launch date was announced on 31 May 2022. 

Founded in 2000 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin aims to make access to space cheaper and more reliable through reusable launch vehicles. The company employs an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its antecedent. The name Blue Origin refers to Earth, the blue planet and point from which humankind’s ventures into space originate. 

In May 2019, Bezos unveiled Blue Origin's plans for a moon lander known as Blue Moon, which the company hopes to have ready for testing by 2024.

FMI: www.blueorigin.com