SPACE reports, “Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a crypto billionaire and five other people to the final frontier on Sunday (Aug. 3). The mission — known as NS-34, because it was the 34th overall flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle — lifted off from the company’s West Texas spaceport at 8:43 a.m. EDT (1243 GMT; 7:43 a.m. local time in West Texas).”
Full Story (SPACE)
Tag: Blue Origin
AIAA Educator Associate Member Conducts Experiments on Blue Origin Spaceflight
FROM THE INSTITUTE
On 31 May 2025, Blue Origin completed its 12th human spaceflight and the 32nd flight for the New Shepard program. The crew included middle and high school teacher, and AIAA Educator Associate Member, Aymette “Amy” Medina Jorge from Odyssey Academy in Galveston, Texas. Born in Puerto Rico, Amy is passionate about boosting Hispanic representation in STEM fields. She is a recipient of the 2023 AIAA and Challenger Center Trailblazing STEM Educator Award.
Full Story (Aerospace America)
Blue Origin to Launch ESCAPADE on Second New Glenn Mission
Space News reports, “Blue Origin has confirmed that a NASA Mars smallsat mission, bumped from the inaugural launch of the New Glenn rocket, will be on the vehicle’s second flight later this year. Blue Origin announced in a social media post July 17 that NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, mission will be the primary payload on the NG-2 launch, the second flight of New Glenn after its inaugural launch in January.”
Full Story (Space News – Subscription Publication)
Second Launch of New Glenn Expected to Take Place Sometime This Fall
Ars Technica reports, “Blue Origin is making steady progress toward the second launch of its New Glenn rocket, which could occur sometime this fall … Two sources say the first stage for this launch is in the final stages of preparation at the company’s facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida … One source told Ars that a mid- to late-September launch date was ‘realistic,’ but another person said late October or November was more likely … Multiple people have told Ars that the current plan is to launch NASA’s ESCAPADE mission on the second launch of New Glenn. This mission encompasses a pair of small spacecraft that will be sent to Mars to study the red planet’s magnetosphere.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
Blue Origin New Shepard Launches 6 Tourists on Suborbital Trip from West Texas
SPACE reports, “Blue Origin sent its 70th person into space today (June 29) on its 13th rocket flight to carry passengers. The company’s New Shepard suborbital launch vehicle lifted off Saturday at 9:39 a.m. CDT (10:39 a.m. EDT or 1439 GMT) from its Launch Site One in West Texas. On board were husband and wife Allie and Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno, Jr., Owolabi Salis and James Sitkin.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Video
Launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-33 Mission from Launch Site One, Texas, June 29, 2025 (Launch takes place at the 35:33 mark)
Space Affairs; YouTube
Blue Origin Unveils Plans for Enabling Long-Term Human Presence on the Moon
SPACE reports, “Blue Origin has begun revealing how it plans to establish itself as a provider of hardware to enable long-term human stays on the moon. One newly unveiled key element is the “Transporter,” a vehicle that can be launched on a single Blue Origin New Glenn rocket into low Earth orbit. It will harvest leftover propellant from the booster’s second stage and then haul the hydrogen and oxygen to lunar orbit.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Trailblazing STEM Educator Amy Medina Jorge Completes Spaceflight on Blue Origin’s NS-32 Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2025 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) issued the following statement from AIAA CEO Clay Mowry:
“Congratulations to Amy Medina Jorge on her journey beyond the Kármán line! We are thrilled to see such a remarkable educator-astronaut make the journey of a lifetime as part of Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-32 mission. Amy is one of those teachers who literally goes above and beyond to inspire the next generation of explorers and innovators.
We were honored to recognize Amy in 2023 with the Trailblazing STEM Educator Award in partnership with Challenger Center. Amy stood out due to her tireless work every day to empower students in STEM – especially those who are traditionally underserved and underrepresented. She’s given her students the chance to participate in real space experiences, leading more than 60 space experiments including developing and flying biometric sensors and performing in-flight 3D printing on a parabolic zero-gravity flight.
As a middle and high school teacher at Odyssey Academy Galveston, in Galveston, Texas, Amy is also an AIAA Educator Associate Member. Teachers like Amy are invaluable – not only to their local communities but to the space community as a whole.
Amy’s lessons are launchpads for her students’ dreams, giving them every opportunity to see their potential. Certainly, her students’ dreams were onboard with her today. What an inspiration!
AIAA applauds Blue Origin on continuing to open up access to space to more people, totaling nearly 60 commercial astronauts so far. We salute the countless aerospace professionals whose expertise has brought the New Shepard fully reusable, suborbital rocket system to this point. Reusability is the future of launch.”
Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell
About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. Visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Space Ops: Blue Origin Prepares to Leapfrog SpaceX to the Moon
Aviation Week reports, “Blue Origin plans to attempt a lunar landing this year. If successful, the MK1, which is 26 ft. tall and 10 ft. in diameter, would become the largest vehicle to touch down on the surface of the Moon, eclipsing the Apollo program’s Lunar Modules (LM) that landed crews six times in 1969-72. Fully fueled, the MK1 weighs 47,000 lb., compared with the 36,200-lb. mass of the extended Apollo LM.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Blue Origin Announces Passengers for 12th Space Tourism Launch
SPACE reports that Blue Origin has revealed the identities of the six passengers who will fly on the company’s 12th human spaceflight mission. A target date has “yet to be announced.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Blue Origin Launches All-Woman Crew on NS-31 Mission
Space News reports, “Blue Shepard launched six women, including a pop star and TV show host, on a suborbital flight of the company’s New Shepard vehicle April 14. New Shepard lifted off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas after a problem-free countdown. The vehicle’s capsule, RSS Kármán Line, reached a peak altitude of 106 kilometers before landing 10 minutes and 21 seconds after liftoff.”
Full Story (Space News)
More Info (AIAA Statement)
Video
Blue Origin’s launch with Katy Perry and Gayle King
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)