RSS ''First Step'' (Reusable Space Ship ''First Step'') is a

New Shepard New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical land ...

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 paylo ...

, built and operated by American spaceflight company

Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American 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 Amazon, the company is ...

. It is the third New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and the first to fly passengers. Its first flight was the NS-14 mission, which reached an altitude of on 14 January 2021.

History

RSS ''First Step'' is the third

capsule built by

, and the first designed to carry passengers. It flew to space for the first time on 14 January 2021, during the NS-14 spaceflight. NS-14 also served as the maiden flight of the NS4 propulsion module. The following flight, NS-15, which was also flown uncrewed by ''First Step'' and NS4, tested boarding and deboarding in what Blue Origin called an "astronaut operational exercise." ''First Step'' flew Blue Origin's first crewed flight on 20 July 2021, carrying founder

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 preside ...

and three passengers to space. This made Texas the fourth state to launch humans into space, after Florida, California, and New Mexico. As of November 2022, it has flown five subsequent crewed spaceflights, carrying a total of 31 people into space, including one (Evan Dick) twice. The New Shepard fleet is grounded as of 2022 due to a failure during the

NS-23 NS23, NS 23, NS-23, NS.23, or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Somerset MRT station (station code: NS23), Orchard, Singapore; a mass transit station * Glace Bay-Dominion (constituency ''N.S. 23''), Nova Scotia, Canada; a provincial electoral ...

mission. The capsule used during the mission, RSS ''H.G. Wells'', managed to abort successfully, while the booster was destroyed. The next mission will occur following an investigation.

Flights

References

{{Blue Origin Individual space vehicles Crewed spacecraft Blue Origin New Shepard