NS-34 Mission Raises Program Total To 75 Flown To Space

Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster rocket successfully completed the program’s 34th mission to space, lifting a crew of six on a suborbital flight that was its 14th human spaceflight. The program has so far taken a total of 75 people on the brief flight above the Karman Line that many consider the edge of space.

The crew consisted of Arvi Bahal, Gokhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, J.D. Russell, and H.E. Justin Sun, the winning bidder for the very first New Shepard seat in 2021.

Sun, a 34-year-old crypto billionaire. was the highest-profile passenger on this flight. He founded the blockchain platform Tron, and in June 2021 he won an auction for the first crewed New Shepard flight. He put down $28 million anonymously for the seat, but in the end he was denied the opportunity to join that flight because of a scheduling conflict.

All of the crew on NS-34 were spaceflight newbies except for J.D. Russell, who flew on the NS-28 mission in November 2024.

Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President of New Shepard said, “It was an honor to see so many nations represented on our flight today. The view of our fragile planet from space has a unifying effect on all who witness it, and I am always eager to see how our astronauts use this experience for the benefit of Earth.”

FMI:  www.blueorigin.com/