15th Payload Flight Also Took Thousands Of Postcards To Space

Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster rocket successfully completed the program’s 15th payload mission to space carrying more than 40 research and scientific payloads on a suborbital flight that was the program's 20th spaceflight without a crew. It was the 12th and final mission for the RSS H.G. Wells Crew Capsule, the dedicated vehicle for flying customer payloads.

The Wells vehicle will now be used for activities supporting New Shepard development in a non-flying role before it goes on permanent display at a location yet to be determined. New Shepard missions have now flown a total of more than 200 science payloads for students, NASA, research institutions, and commercial companies.

Audrey Powers, Vice President of Mission and Flight Operations for Blue Origin said, “We’re proud to have flown hundreds of science, research, and educational payloads to space on New Shepard. Each mission has expanded opportunities for our customers to rapidly and reliably test space technologies, conduct groundbreaking research, and engage the next generation of scientists and explorers.”

In addition to the science payloads, NS-35 carried thousands of postcards for its nonprofit, Club for the Future, under its Postcards to Space program. Each of those postcards will be stamped “Flown to Space” and returned to its owner. There is a digital process to create and send the postcards in to Club for the Future, which can be found at its website.

Additional details of the NS-35 flight are:

• Official Launch Time: 8:00:00 AM CDT / 13:00:00 UTC
• Booster Apogee: 341,489 ft AGL / 345,136 ft MSL (104 km AGL / 105 km MSL)
• Capsule Apogee: 341,805 ft AGL / 345,452 ft MSL (104 km AGL / 105 km MSL)
• Capsule Landing Time: 8:10:14 AM CDT / 13:10:14 UTC
• Mission Elapsed Time: 10 minutes, 14 seconds

FMI:  www.blueorigin.com/ , www.clubforfuture.org/