Marks Blue Origin’s Eighth Human Mission

Blue Origin recently announced that their crewed New Shepard mission will be lifting off from Launch Site One, just north of Van Horn, Texas. It will launch around 8:00 am CDT.

The Blue Origin spacecraft, named after the first American in space, is meant to reduce the cost and waste production of space travel. The company notes that almost all of the New Shepard’s materials are reused, including the booster, capsule, and parachutes. It is powered by a BE-3PM engine that runs on liquid oxygen and nitrogen, and has a six-person crew capsule design.

The New Shepard is fully autonomous, allowing all six on board to sit back, relax, and enjoy the views. This, however, expands the need for extensive safety testing.

Tests for the New Shepard and its onboard systems have been occurring since 2012. It has had 22 successful missions in a row, plus three escape tests. In 2021, the spacecraft began flying humans and has since taken seven crews; the NS-26 mission will be the eighth.

“Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin,” they state.

The NS-26 journey is expected to last 11 minutes. The crew will blow past the Kármán line at airspeeds over Mach 3. This is the internationally recognized boundary of space and sits 62 miles above the mean sea level.

Seats on the New Shepard are up for sale through Blue Origin. They provide an on-site astronaut training program for selected crew members to teach the basics of spaceflight. Within two days, the new astronauts will learn about the New Shepard, safe operations, zero gravity protocol, and complete simulations of the mission.

Blue Origin is hosting a live viewing of the NS-26 launch on their website. It is set to begin at T-40 minutes.

FMI: www.blueorigin.com