Space News reports that Blue Origin will conduct “its next New Shepard suborbital mission Aug. 25 with a set of research payloads, but not people, on board on the vehicle’s first flight under a revised launch license.” The NS-17 mission will launch from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One the morning of August 25, and will carry 18 research payloads aboard the capsule.
Full Story (Space News)
Tag: New Shepard
AIAA Statement on Blue Origin’s Successful New Shepard Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2021 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) congratulates our corporate member Blue Origin on its successful first human flight of its New Shepard rocket today. AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher made the following statement:
“On behalf of the 30,000 professional and student members of AIAA, we are excited to congratulate Jeff Bezos and the Blue Origin team on their accomplishments today! The successful New Shepard Mission NS-16 builds upon today’s anniversary when we first touched the moon and accelerates us toward where we’re going next. Blue Origin is opening up access to space travel for more people. We believe this will help extend the human neighborhood beyond planet Earth.
We commend Blue Origin for turning this mission’s seat auction into inspiration. The AIAA Foundation is honored to be among the organizations chosen to receive $1 million each to inspire future generations to pursue STEM careers. We look forward to engaging students and educators with new, innovative, and creative STEM education opportunities, as well as expanding the robust K-12 and university programs we have enabled for the last 25 years.
We are excited to build on our existing partnership with Blue Origin through our Design/Build/Launch (DBL) competition, giving high school students opportunities to develop and fly microgravity research payloads onboard future missions of New Shepard. We are proud of our recently announced 2021 DBL winners – Puneeth Bheesetty, Anna Porter Puckett, and Jaden Shawyer – from Granby High School, Norfolk, Virginia. They join our 2020 DBL winner, Eleanor Sigrest, who recently graduated as valedictorian of a dual program at Forest Park High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, and the Governor’s School at Innovation Park in Manassas, Virginia. We look forward to seeing their research payloads fly aboard New Shepard and hearing their results at an ASCEND event – a gathering of the global community focused on building humanity’s off-world future faster.
We recognize the countless aerospace industry professionals who are involved in making today’s mission a success. We salute and applaud the Blue Origin team for turning dreams into reality and helping shape the future of aerospace.”
AIAA Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell
About ASCEND
Powered by AIAA, ASCEND promotes the collaborative, interdisciplinary, outcomes-driven community of professionals, students, and serious enthusiasts around the world who are accelerating humanity’s progress toward our off-world future! For more information, visit ascend.events, or follow ASCEND on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
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. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Blue Origin Confirms Vehicles for Tuesday’s Crewed Mission Are Ready for Launch
Forbes reports that on Sunday, Blue Origin “announced that everything looks set and ready to go for its first human spaceflight, which will launch” company founder Jeff Bezos “and three others over 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface before their safe return.” The mission is scheduled to launch Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Chief engineer Chris Jaeger said, “The vehicles are ready to fly.” He added that the New Shepard rocket and the RSS First Step capsule have been checked since their last test flights, and “there are no engineering or technical issues” with the vehicles.
Full Story
FAA Approves Bezos’ Blue Origin for Crewed Space Travel
Reuters reports that the FAA announced Monday that it is approving Blue Origin’s application to carry humans into space on the New Shepard launch system. The license “is valid through August and is approved to conduct these missions from its Launch Site One facility in Texas.” Fox Business reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos “is scheduled to fly into space on July 20 on New Shepard’s 16th flight.”
Full Story (Reuters); More Info (Fox Business)
Blue Origin Begins Unsealed Phase of Auction for Seat on New Shepard Launch
SPACE reports that on Wednesday, Blue Origin began the unsealed phase of the bidding process for a seat on a July 20 New Shepard spacecraft launch. The unsealed phase follows online sealed bidding that began May 5. Per the Blue Origin website, the leading bid for the seat as of 4:00 a.m. EDT was $2.8 million. The “‘unsealed online bidding’ phase runs through June 10, and the event concludes with a live auction on June 12.” Blue Origin wrote in the auction description that the proceeds from the auction “will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] and help invent the future of life in space.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Blue Origin to Auction Off Seat for July Flight to Space
ABC News reports that Blue Origin “said Wednesday it has opened an online auction for one of six seats aboard the New Shepard, its suborbital vehicle designed for space tourism, for the July 20 flight.” After “completing 15 consecutive missions to space and back with New Shepard, the company said it is ready to fly its first civilian passenger from its remote Van Horn, Texas, launch site.” The flight “will last between 10 and 12 minutes, during which the capsule will pass” the Karman Line – “the internationally recognized line of space.” After passing the Karman Line, “the astronauts will be able to unbuckle their seatbelts and float in zero gravity for about three minutes,” according to Blue Origin Director of Astronaut and Orbital Sales Ariane Cornell.
Full Story (ABC News
Blue Origin Schedules New Shepard Suborbital Test Flight for Wednesday
Spaceflight Now reports that Blue Origin is planning to launch its New Shepard booster and crew capsule on a suborbital test flight at 11:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The launch will take off from Blue Origin’s “expansive desert launch site north of Van Horn, Texas.” Blue Origin said that the test flight is a “verification step for the vehicle and operations prior to flying astronauts.” Blue Origin “said its employees will perform ‘astronaut operational exercises’ before and after the test flight Wednesday.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Blue Origin to Conduct Test Flight for New Shepard Suborbital Vehicle
Space News reports that Blue Origin is preparing for the next test flight of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle, which could be launched as soon as Thursday. The FAA published temporary flight restrictions Tuesday, which will “close airspace above Blue Origin’s West Texas test site from Jan. 14 through Jan. 17, from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern each day.” In a Wednesday statement, Blue Origin announced its plans to conduct the launch Thursday at 10:45 a.m. EST. According to the company, the capsule “will be outfitted with upgrades to the crew capsule for the astronaut experience as the program nears human space flight,” including improved display panels, environmental controls, and communications systems. The capsule will have six seats, with a mannequin occupying one of them.
Full Story (Space News)
Blue Origin Completes Sub-Orbital Test Flight of New Shepard
CBS News reports that a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket lifted off at 9:36 a.m. EDT Tuesday from the company’s West Texas site. The rocket “boosted an unpiloted crew capsule to the edge of space…in the company’s 13th sub-orbital test flight, reaching an altitude of 66 miles and giving on-board experiments about five minutes of weightlessness before a picture-perfect parachute descent to Earth.”
Full Story (CBS News)