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New Shepard is a fully reusable
suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital ...
launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...
developed by
Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...
for
space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...
. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical landing, and can carry a crew. The first uncrewed test flight of the New Shepard vehicle was in 2015. Blue Origin began testing prototype engines and vehicles in 2006 and completed full-scale engine development in 2015. Testing continued in 2016 and 2017, and Blue Origin planned its first crewed test flight for 2018, but it was delayed until 2021. As of 4 August 2022, New Shepard has flown 32 passengers into space. Tickets for commercial flights began to be sold on May 5, 2021, for flights carrying up to six people. New Shepard is a one-stage rocket consisting of a crew capsule and a booster rocket. The capsule can seat six passengers. The booster rocket, powered by a BE-3 liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine, propels the capsule to an altitude of over 100 km, where passengers can experience a few minutes of
weightlessness Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...
before the capsule returns to Earth. The vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, with the capsule and booster rocket returning to Earth via
parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, w ...
and landing vertically on the ground. This allows Blue Origin to significantly reduce the cost of space tourism, making the experience more accessible to the general public. Blue Origin has successfully launched and landed the New Shepard vehicle 21 times.


History


Early Blue Origin vehicle and engine development

The first development vehicle of the New Shepard development program was a sub-scale demonstration vehicle named Goddard, built in 2006 following earlier engine development efforts by Blue Origin. Goddard made its first flight on 13 November 2006. The Goddard launch vehicle was assembled at the Blue Origin facility near
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...
,
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Also in 2006, Blue Origin started the process to build an aerospace testing and operations center on a portion of the Corn Ranch, a land parcel Bezos purchased north of Van Horn, Texas. Blue Origin Project Manager Rob Meyerson has said that they selected Texas as the launch site particularly because of the state's historical connections to the aerospace industry, although that industry is not located near the planned launch site, and the vehicle will not be manufactured in Texas. On the path to developing New Shepard, a crew capsule was also needed, and design was begun on a
space capsule A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...
in the early 2000s. One development milestone along the way became public. On 19 October 2012, Blue Origin conducted a successful pad escape of a full-scale
suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital ...
crew capsule at its
West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betw ...
launch site. For the test, the capsule fired its pusher escape motor and launched from a launch vehicle simulator. The Crew Capsule traveled to an altitude of under active thrust vector control before descending safely by parachute to a soft landing downrange. In April 2015, Blue Origin announced that they had completed
acceptance testing In engineering and its various subdisciplines, acceptance testing is a test conducted to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met. It may involve chemical tests, physical tests, or performance tests. In systems ...
of the BE-3 engine that would power the larger New Shepard vehicle. Blue also announced that they intended to begin
flight testing Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...
of the New Shepard later in 2015, with initial flights occurring as frequently as monthly, with "a series of dozens of flights over the extent of the
suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital ...
test program akinga couple of years to complete". The same month, the FAA announced that the regulatory paperwork for the test program had already been filed and approved, and test flights were expected to begin before mid-May 2015. By February 2016, three New Shepard vehicles had been built. The first was lost in a test in April 2015, the second had flown twice (see below), and the third was completing manufacture at the Blue factory in
Kent, Washington Kent is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and th ...
. In 2016, the
Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...
team were awarded the
Collier Trophy The Robert J. Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to ...
for demonstrating rocket booster reusability with the New Shepard human spaceflight vehicle.


Flight test program

A multi-year program of flight tests was begun in 2015 and continued into 2021. By mid-2016, the test program was sufficiently advanced that Blue Origin began flying suborbital research payloads for universities and NASA. The flight-test program was completed in early 2021 and the first flight carrying passengers to suborbital space occurred in July 2021.


New Shepard 1

The first flight of the full-scale New Shepard vehicle – NS1 – also called "Tail 1" – was conducted on 29 April 2015 during which an altitude of was attained. While the test flight itself was deemed a success, and the capsule was successfully recovered via parachute landing, the booster crash landed and was not recovered due to a failure of hydraulic pressure in the vehicle control system during descent. The capsule was called RSS ''Jules Verne''.


New Shepard 2

The New Shepard 2 (NS2), also called "Tail 2", flight test article propulsion module made five successful flights in 2015 and 2016, being retired after its fifth flight in October 2016.


First vertical soft landing

After the loss of NS1, a second New Shepard vehicle was built, NS2. Its first flight, and the second test flight of New Shepard overall, was carried out on 23 November 2015, reaching altitude with successful recovery of both capsule and booster stage. The booster rocket successfully performed a powered vertical landing. This was the first such successful rocket vertical landing on
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
after travelling higher than that the McDonnell Douglas DC-XA achieved in the 1990s, and first after sending something into space. Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying that Blue Origin planned to use the same architecture of New Shepard for the booster stage of their orbital vehicle.


Second vertical soft landing

On 22 January 2016, Blue Origin successfully repeated the flight profile of 23 November 2015 launch with the same New Shepard vehicle. New Shepard launched, reached a maximum altitude of , and, after separation, both capsule and launch vehicle returned to the ground intact. This accomplishment demonstrated re-usability of New Shepard and a turnaround time of 61 days.


Third vertical soft landing

On 2 April 2016, the same New Shepard booster flew for a third time, reaching , before returning successfully.


Fourth vertical soft landing

On 19 June 2016, the same New Shepard booster flew, now for a fourth time, again reaching over , before returning successfully for a VTVL rocket-powered landing. The capsule returned once again under parachutes but, this time, did a test descent with only two parachutes before finishing with a brief pulse of retro rocket propulsion to slow the ground impact velocity to . The two parachutes "slowed the descent to 23 mph, as opposed to the usual 16 mph with three parachutes". Crushable bumpers are used to further reduce the landing shock through energy-absorbing deformation.


Fifth and final flight test

A fifth and final test flight of the NS2 propulsion module was conducted on 5 October 2016. The principal objective was to boost the passenger module to the point of highest dynamic pressure at
transonic Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transoni ...
velocity and conduct a flight test of the in-flight abort system. Due to subsequent buffet and forces that impact the propulsion module after the high velocity separation of the passenger capsule that are outside the design region of the PM, NS2 was not expected to survive and land, and if it did, Blue had stated that NS2 would be retired and become a museum item. In the event, the flight test was successful. The abort occurred, and NS2 remained stable after the capsule abort test, completed its ascent to space, and successfully landed for a fifth and final time.


New Shepard 3

New Shepard 3 (NS3), also called "Tail 3", along with capsule RSS ''H. G. Wells'', was modified for increased reusability and improved thermal protection; it includes a redesigned propulsion module and the inclusion of new access panels for more rapid servicing and improved thermal protection. ''NS3'' is the third propulsion module built. It was completed and shipped to the launch site by September 2017,Blue Origin enlarges New Glenn’s payload fairing, preparing to debut upgraded New Shepard
Caleb Henry, SpaceNews, accessed 15 September 2017.
although parts of it had been built as early as March 2016. Flight tests began in 2017 and continued into 2019. The new Crew Capsule 2.0, featuring windows, is integrated to the NS3. NS3 will only ever be used to fly cargo; no passengers will be carried.first time we've had two rockets in the barn in West Texas
Blue Origin, 17 December 2018, accessed 26 December 2018.
Its initial flight test occurred on 12 December 2017. This was the first flight flown under the regulatory regime of a launch license granted by the US
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...
. Previous test flights had flown under an experimental permit, which did not allow Blue to carry cargo for which it is paid for commercially. This made the flight of NS3 the first revenue flight for payloads, and it carried 12 experiments on the flight, as well as a test dummy given the moniker "Mannequin Skywalker." Since the maiden flight, "Blue Origin has been making updates to the vehicle ... intended primarily to improve operability rather than performance or reliability. Those upgrades took longer than expected" leading to a several-month gap in test flights. The second test flight took place on 29 April 2018. The 10th overall New Shepard flight, and the fourth NS3 flight, had originally been planned for December 2018, but was delayed due to "ground infrastructure issues." Following a diagnostics of the initial issue, Blue rescheduled the launch for early 2019, after discovering "additional systems" that needed repairs as well. The flight launched on 23 January 2019 and successfully flew to space with a maximum altitude of .New Shepard makes 10th launch as Blue Origin aims to fly humans late in 2019
Eric Berger, ''Ars Technica''. 23 January 2019, accessed 26 January 2019.
It has been used to test SPLICE ("Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution"), a NASA lunar landing technology demonstration, on two separate flights in October 2020 (NS-13) and August 2021 (NS-17). New Shepard 3 was destroyed during the NS-23 mission once it impacted the ground on 12 September 2022 after a booster engine anomaly led to the activation of the in-flight abort system. This was the ninth flight of NS3, and the flight was not carrying any
people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
on board.


New Shepard 4

New Shepard 4 (NS4), also called "Tail 4", which flies with capsule RSS ''First Step'', was the fourth propulsion module to be built and the first to carry human passengers. Bezos himself was a passenger. The vehicle was manufactured in 2018 and moved to the Blue Origin West Texas launch facility in December 2019. The uncrewed maiden launch of NS4 occurred on 14 January 2021. NS4 was successfully launched on 20 July 2021, with four passengers; Jeff Bezos was aboard this maiden crewed flight. On 13 October 2021, NS4 successfully launched and landed, carrying four passengers, including notable passenger
William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...
. On 11 December 2021, the Blue Origin NS-19 successfully launched into space. The ship's passengers included NFL legend and television personality Michael Strahan, Alan Shepard's daughter Laura Shepard Churchley, who flew into space 60 years after her father's flight, and four other people. This was the first time New Shepard carried six passengers, the full design passenger complement. The fourth crewed flight took place 31 March 2022, with a Blue Origin employee and five other passengers on board. The fifth crewed flight took place 4 June 2022, and the sixth crewed flight took place 4 August 2022.


Crewed flights

In June 2018, the company announced that while it continued to plan to fly initial internal passengers later in 2018, it would not be selling commercial tickets for New Shepard until 2019 but the first commercial crewed flight was delayed until 2021. Blue Origin commenced the first flight carrying passengers on the 16th flight of New Shepard (NS-16) on 20 July 2021. One commercial seat was auctioned on 12 June 2021 for which went to Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, which inspires future generations to pursue careers in STEM. However, due to scheduling problems, the $28M auction winner did not participate in the NS-16 flight. The $28M auction winner was rescheduled to fly at a later flight. The passengers aboard the NS-16 flight on 20 July 2021 were
Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former presi ...
, Mark Bezos,
Wally Funk Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight i ...
and Oliver Daemen. At 82 years old Funk was the oldest person, and at 18 Daemen was the youngest, to travel into space. Daemen got the commercial seat that the $28M auction winner did not use. Daemen's flight was paid for by his father Joes Daemen, who, after the anonymous $28M auction winner dropped out of the flight, was able to secure the seat on the flight due to being the second highest bidder on the auction. Joes paid for the seat and gave it to his son, thus making Oliver Daemen the first commercial passenger of New Shepard. On 22 December 2021, it was made public that the $28 million mystery auction winner was Justin Sun, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur. The $28 million he bid was paid to Blue Origin, who in turn gave it to their charity Club for the Future, which in turn distributed most of the money to other space-related nonprofit organizations. Instead of flying on the flight in July 2021 to which he won the auctioned seat, Mr. Sun has agreed with Blue Origin to Mr. Sun buying (presumably with the $28 million that has already been paid to Blue Origin) a dedicated New Shepard flight in 2022. Mr. Sun will choose five passengers to accompany him on this flight in late 2022. The second crewed flight took place on 13 October 2021, carrying four passengers, two of whom were paying passengers. The flight included the actor
William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...
who flew as "guest" of Blue Origin (i.e., he did not pay for his flight). On 11 December 2021, the third crewed flight, Blue Origin NS-19, successfully launched into space. The ship's passengers included NFL legend and television personality Michael Strahan and Alan Shepard's daughter Laura Shepard Churchley as "guests" of Blue Origin (i.e., they did not pay for their flights), and four other people who were paying passengers. The fourth crewed flight, Blue Origin NS-20, flew successfully on 31 March 2022. Onboard was Gary Lai, a Blue Origin employee and five paying passengers. This was the first flight with no celebrity passengers. The fifth crewed flight, Blue Origin NS-21, flew successfully on 4 June 2022. Onboard was educational YouTuber Katya Echazarreta, whose flight had been partly sponsored by Blue Origin, and partly by other sources, and five other paying passengers (it could be that it has been mistakenly claimed that Echazarreta's flight was sponsored by Blue Origin and instead it was fully sponsored by Space for Humanity, a nonprofit organization). Also onboard was Blue Origin's first repeat customer for New Shepard launches, Evan Dick. The 6th crewed flight took place 4 August 2022. Among the passengers was Coby Cotton, one of the founders of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect. His flight was paid for by the organizatio
MoonDAO
which works in cryptocurrency to "decentralize access to space", and bought two seats from Blue Origin. One of the seats was used by Cotton and one to be used in the future by Kejun Yan. It was reported that MoonDAO had paid about $2.5 million for the two seats on Blue Origin flights, or $1.25 million per seat. This is the first public figure available for the price to ride a Blue Origin rocket to suborbital space (not counting the $28 million winning bid in the auction for a seat on the first flight). However, Blue Origin does not charge all their passengers the same price, but tailors the price individually to each passenger, so it is hard to define the "ticket price" for New Shepard. Also on the 4 August 2022 flight were the first space travellers of Egyptian and Portuguese origin, and the flight was the first flight (it may have been that the previous flight Blue Origin NS-21 on 4 June 2022 was actually the first such flight, if Katya Echazarreta's flight was not sponsored by Blue Origin, see above) where all six passengers were paying passengers (i.e., their flights were financed by other entities than Blue Origin). Up to late June 2022 (after the fifth crewed flight Blue Origin NS-21), Blue Origin has generated more than $100 million from the New Shepard space tourism program.


Flight list

, , , Flight to altitude 93.5 km, capsule recovered, booster crashed on landing. , - ! 2 , 23 November 2015 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing. , - ! 3 , 22 January 2016 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster. , - ! 4 , 2 April 2016 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster. , - ! 5 , 19 June 2016 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster: the fourth launch and landing of the same rocket. Blue Origin published a live webcast of the takeoff and landing. , - ! 6 , 5 October 2016 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster. Successful test of the in-flight abort system. The fifth and final launch and landing of the same rocket (NS2). , - ! 7 , 12 December 2017 , , , , Flight to just under 100 km and landing. The first launch of NS3 and a new Crew Capsule 2.0. , - ! 8 , 29 April 2018 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster. , - ! 9 , 18 July 2018 , , , , Sub-orbital spaceflight and landing of a reused booster, with the Crew Capsule 2.0-1 ''RSS H.G.Wells'', carrying a
mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. ...
. Successful test of the in-flight abort system at high altitude. Flight duration was 11 minutes. , - ! 10 , 23 January 2019 , , c. , , Sub-orbital flight, delayed from 18 December 2018. Eight NASA research and technology payloads were flown. , - ! 11 , 2 May 2019 , , c. , , Sub-orbital flight. Maximum Ascent Velocity: , duration: 10 minutes, 10 seconds. Payload: 38 microgravity research payloads (nine sponsored by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...
). , - ! 12 , 11 December 2019 , , c. , , Sub-orbital flight, Payload: Multiple commercial, research (8 sponsored by NASA) and educational payloads, including postcards from Club for the Future. The sixth launch and landing of the same rocket. , - ! 13 , 13 October 2020, 13:37 , , c. , , 7th flight of the same capsule/booster. Onboard 12 payloads include Space Lab Technologies, Southwest Research Institute, postcards and seeds for Club for the Future, and multiple payloads for NASA including SPLICE to test future lunar landing technologies in support of the Artemis program. , - ! 14 , 14 January 2021, 16:57 , , , , Uncrewed qualification flight for NS4 rocket and capsule and maiden flight for NS4 , - ! 15 , 14 April 2021
16:51 , , , , Second flight of NS4, first preflight human passenger process test where Blue Origin conducted an "Astronaut Rehearsal." Gary Lai, Susan Knapp, Clay Mowry, and Audrey Powers, all Blue Origin personnel, were “stand-in astronauts”. Lai and Powers briefly entered the capsule during the test. , - ! 16 , 20 July 2021
13:12 , , , , First crewed flight of New Shepard, with four passengers:
*
Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former presi ...

* Mark Bezos
*
Wally Funk Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight i ...

* Oliver Daemen , - ! 17 , 25 August 2021
14:31 , , , , Payload mission consisting of 18 commercial payloads inside the crew capsule, a NASA lunar landing technology demonstration installed on the exterior of the booster and an art installation installed on the exterior of the crew capsule. , - ! 18 , 13 October 2021
14:49 , , , , Second crewed New Shepard flight. Crew of four included:
* Chris Boshuizen
* Glen de Vries
*
William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...

* Audrey Powers , - ! 19 , 11 December 2021 , , , , Third crewed New Shepard flight. Crew of six included:
* Lane Bess
* Cameron Bess
* Evan Dick
* Laura Shepard Churchley
* Michael Strahan
* Dylan Taylor , - ! 20 , 31 March 2022
13:57 , , , , Fourth crewed New Shepard flight. Crew of six included:
* Marty Allen
* Sharon Hagle
* Marc Hagle
* Jim Kitchen
* George Nield
* Gary Lai , - ! 21 , 4 June 2022
13:25 , , , , Fifth crewed New Shepard flight. Crew of six included:
* Evan Dick
* Katya Echazarreta
* Hamish Harding
* Victor Correa Hespanha
* Jaison Robinson
* Victor Vescovo
, - ! 22 , 4 August 2022
13:56 , , , , Sixth crewed New Shepard flight. Crew of six included:
* Coby Cotton
* Mário Ferreira
* Vanessa O'Brien
* Clint Kelly III
* Sara Sabry
* Steve Young
, - ! 23 , 12 September 2022
14:27 , , , , Uncrewed research mission with 36 commercial payloads on board including two on the exterior of the booster. The spacecraft's
launch escape system A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, s ...
activated after the booster's BE-3 main engine failed around a minute after liftoff leading to a loss of control. The capsule was safely recovered whilst the booster was lost as it impacted on ground.


Design

The New Shepard is a fully reusable,
vertical takeoff, vertical landing Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. The most widely known and commercially successful VTVL rocket is SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage. VTVL technologies were deve ...
(VTVL) space vehicle composed of two principal parts: a pressurized crew capsule and a booster rocket that Blue Origin calls a propulsion module. The New Shepard is controlled entirely by on-board computers, without ground control or a human pilot.


Crew capsule

The New Shepard Crew Capsule is a pressurized crew capsule that can carry six people, and supports a "full-envelope"
launch escape system A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, s ...
that can separate the capsule from the booster rocket anywhere during the ascent. Interior volume of the capsule is . The Crew Capsule Escape Solid Rocket Motor (CCE-SRM) is sourced from Aerojet Rocketdyne. After separation two or three parachutes deploy. Just before landing, retro rockets fire. (see ''Fourth vertical soft landing'' (19 June 2016) above)


Propulsion module

The New Shepard propulsion module is powered using a Blue Origin BE-3 bipropellant
rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...
burning
liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33  K. However, for it to be in a fully l ...
and
liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...
, although some early development work was done by Blue Origin on engines operating with other propellants: the BE-1 engine using monopropellant
hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3 ...
; and the BE-2 engine using
high-test peroxide High-test peroxide (HTP) is a highly concentrated (85 to 98%) solution of hydrogen peroxide, with the remainder consisting predominantly of water. In contact with a catalyst, it decomposes into a high-temperature mixture of steam and oxygen, with n ...
oxidizer and RP-1 kerosene fuel.Morring, Frank Jr.
"Blue Origin Developing Its Own Launch Vehicle"
''Aerospace Daily & Defense Report,'' 30 April 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2015.


Flight profile

The New Shepard is launched vertically from West Texas and then performs a powered flight for about 110 s and to an altitude of . The craft's momentum carries it upward in unpowered flight as the vehicle slows, culminating at an altitude of about . After reaching
apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any el ...
the vehicle performs a descent and restart its main engines a few tens of seconds before vertical landing, close to its launch site. The total flight duration of the rocket is over 7 minutes. The crewed variant features a separate crew module that separates close to peak altitude, and the propulsion module performs a powered landing while the crew module lands under
parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, w ...
s. Total flight time is 10 minutes. The crew module can also separate in case of vehicle malfunction or other emergency using solid propellant separation boosters and perform a parachute landing.


Development

Initial low altitude flight testing (up to ) with subscale prototypes of the New Shepard was scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006. This was later confirmed to have occurred in November 2006 in a press release by Blue Origin. The prototype flight test program could involve up to ten flights. Incremental flight testing to 100 km altitude was planned to be carried out between 2007 and 2009 with increasingly larger and more capable prototypes. The full-scale vehicle was initially expected to be operational for revenue service as early as 2010, though that goal was not met and the first full-scale test flight of a New Shepard vehicle was successfully completed 2015, with commercial service currently aimed for no earlier than 2020. The vehicle could fly up to 50 times a year. Clearance from the FAA was needed before test flights began, and a separate license is needed before commercial operations begin. Blue held a public meeting on 15 June 2006 in Van Horn, as part of the public comment opportunity needed to secure FAA permissions. Blue Origin projected in 2006 that once cleared for commercial operation, they would expect to conduct a maximum rate of 52 launches per year from West Texas. The RLV would carry three or more passengers per operation.


Prototype test vehicle

An initial flight test of a prototype vehicle took place on 13 November 2006 at 6:30 am local time (12:30 UTC); an earlier flight on the 10th being canceled due to winds. This marked the first developmental test flight undertaken by Blue Origin. The flight was by the first prototype vehicle, known as Goddard. The flight to in altitude was successful. Videos are available on the Blue Origin website and elsewhere.


Second test vehicle

A second test vehicle made two flights in 2011. The first flight was a short hop (low altitude, VTVL takeoff and landing mission) flown on 6 May 2011. The vehicle is known only as "PM2" as of August 2011, gleaned from information the company filed with the FAA prior to its late August high-altitude, high-velocity second test flight. Media have speculated this might mean "Propulsion Module". This vehicle was flown a second time on a 24 August 2011 test flight, in west Texas. It failed when ground personnel lost contact and control of the vehicle. The company recovered remnants of the craft from ground search. On 2 September 2011, Blue Origin released the results of the cause of the test vehicle failure. As the vehicle reached Mach 1.2 and altitude, a "flight instability drove an
angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...
that triggered he range safety system to terminate thrust on the vehicle."Blue Origin Acknowledges Test Flight Failure
, ''Space News'', September 12, 2011, Retrieved 13 June 2022.


Involvement with NASA Commercial Crew Development Program

Additionally, Blue Origin received US$3.7 million in Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 1 to advance several development objectives of its innovative "pusher"
Launch Abort System A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...
(LAS) and composite
pressure vessel A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure. Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size o ...
. , with the end of the second ground test, Blue Origin completed all work envisioned under the phase 1 contract for the pusher escape system. They also "completed work on the other aspect of its award, risk reduction work on a composite pressure vessel" for the vehicle.


Commercial suborbital flights


Passenger flights

Following the fifth and final test flight of the NS2 booster and test capsule in October 2016, Blue Origin indicated that they were on track for flying test
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
s by the end of 2017, and beginning commercial suborbital
passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. Th ...
flights in 2018. After fifteen test flights, the company flew its first four passengers in 2021 –
Wally Funk Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight i ...
,
Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former presi ...
, Mark Bezos, and Oliver Daemen – on Blue Origin NS-16.


NASA suborbital research payloads

, Blue Origin had submitted the New Shepard reusable launch vehicle for use as an uncrewed rocket for NASA's suborbital reusable launch vehicle (sRLV) solicitation under NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. Blue Origin projects altitude in flights of approximately ten minutes duration, while carrying an research payload. By March 2016, Blue noted that they are "due to start flying unaccompanied scientific payloads later n 2016" On 12 September 2022, eighteen NASA payloads were flying on NS-23 when an in-flight failure of the booster's main engine caused an emergency ejection of the payload capsule. The payload capsule landed safely and was recovered whilst the booster was lost.


See also

* * ** 2009 * *
New Glenn New Glenn is a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in 2012. Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initial ...
* * SpaceX reusable launch system development program *
List of crewed spacecraft This is a list of all crewed spacecraft types that have flown into space, including sub-orbital flights above 80 km, Space Stations that have been visited by at least one crew, and spacecraft currently planned to operate with crew in the f ...


References


External links

* Blue Origin Official website
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Blue's Rocket Clues
(MSNBC's Cosmic Log, 24 June 2006)

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Secretive Spaceship Builder's Plans Hinted at in NASA Agreement Commercial Crew Development Blue Origin
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New Shepard space vehicle first successful soft landing
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YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
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