Blue Origin NS-22
Blue Origin launches the New Shepard suborbital flight NS-22, the vehicle’s sixth crewed flight. Passengers on this flight are Coby Cotton, Mário Ferreira, Vanessa O’Brien, Clint Kelly III, Sara Sabry, and Steve Young.
Blue Origin NS-21
Blue Origin launches the New Shepard suborbital flight NS-21, the vehicle’s fifth crewed flight. Passengers on this flight are Evan Dick (who also flew aboard NS-19), Katya Echazarreta, Hamish Harding, Victor Correa Hespanha, Jaison Robinson, and Victor Vescovo.
Blue Origin NS-20
Blue Origin launches the New Shepard suborbital flight NS-20, the fourth crewed flight of the vehicle. Passengers on this flight are Marty Allen, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, George Nield, and Gary Lai. Lai is the designer of the New Shepard vehicle.
Blue Origin NS-19
Blue Origin launches the NS-19 suborbital flight aboard a New Shepard capsule, the third crewed flight of the vehicle. Passengers on the flight include Dylan Taylor, Evan Dick, Lane Bess, Cameron Bess, NFL Hall-of-Famer Michael Strahan, and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to reach space. Lane and Cameron Bess are the first parent and child to fly to space on the same vehicle.
Blue Origin NS-18
The second crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space capsule lifts off on a ten-minute parabolic trajectory. Of major interest to the press is the presence of Star Trek actor William Shatner aboard the flight, riding in a seat donated by Blue Origin. At 90 years old, Shatner replaces previous New Shepard passenger Wally Funk as the oldest human being in space, and returns from his trip visibly moved by the experience. Along with Shatner for the ride are Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s VP of mission and flight operations, former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen, and Dassault Systèmes executive Glen de Vries. (The latter two each paid $250,000,000 for their seats.)
Blue Origin NS-16
Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded and owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its first fully-crewed New Shepard capsule into suborbital space. Aboard are Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Mercury 13 astronaut candidate Wally Funk (at 82, the oldest human to have traveled in space to date), and Oliver Daemen (at 18, the youngest human space traveler to date); the vehicle is fully automatic and has no pilots (or, indeed, control systems for pilots) aboard, with the flight lasting ten minutes from liftoff to landing under parachute. This is the first crewed spaceflight launched from Blue Origin’s Texas facility. As both the New Shepard booster and crew capsule are reusable, the hardware has all been previously flown.
Blue Origin NS-12
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its twelfth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes 38 experimental payloads, some of them designed by NASA, Columbia University, and two winners of an “art in space” contest sponsored by rock group OK Go. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the sixth flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the sixth flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Blue Origin NS-11
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its eleventh New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes 38 experimental payloads, some of them designed by NASA, New Century Technology High School, and MIT’s Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the fifth flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the fifth flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Blue Origin NS-10
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its tenth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes several payloads designed by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the fourth flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the fourth flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Blue Origin NS-9
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its ninth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes several commercial and research payloads, but serves primarily as a test of the ascent escape engine system designed to pull a crewed New Shepard capsule clear of a booster in the event of an anomaly during launch. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the third flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the third flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Blue Origin NS-8
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its eighth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes several commercial and research payloads, as well as a telemetry test dummy nicknamed “Mannequin Skywalker”, designed to record potential spaceflight stresses on future human passengers. An apogee of 351,000 feet is reached for the first time. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the second flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the second flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
Blue Origin NS-6
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its sixth New Shepard flight. To conduct a live test of survivability of the launch abort system, the capsule is commanded to blast free of its booster at Max-Q (the moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the combined vehicle). The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule survives the simulated emergency separation and lands safely, but surprisingly, the single-stage suborbital booster also recovers from the stress of the abort test and lands safely near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the fifth and final flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the fifth and final flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster. Flight tests will resume in late 2017 with a new booster and capsule.
Blue Origin NS-4
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its fourth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the third flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster; both will be flown again later in 2016.
Blue Origin NS-3
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its third New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility, marking the first reflight of an already-flown booster. This is the second flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the second flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster; both will be flown again.
Blue Origin NS-2
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its second New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility, after refinements are made to the system of aerodynamic fins designed to keep the booster upright as it returns to the ground for a survivable landing. This is the first intact return of a space-flown booster to Earth. This is the first flight for the second New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the first flight for the second New Shepard reusable booster; both will be reused again.
Blue Origin NS-1
Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its first New Shepard flight, a booster and capsule which the company hopes will eventually carry paying passengers on short suborbital flights into space. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule comes in for a soft landing near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility, though the booster – also intended to land and be refurbished for future reuse – does not land intact. This is the first in a series of uncrewed tests of the New Shepard launch system and suborbital vehicle; further tests will be flown over the next few years.