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Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifts off from Texas. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 31 (UPI) — Blue Origin is set to launch the 4th crewed mission of its New Shepard rocket Thursday morning from Texas, carrying a crew of six to the edge of space and back. The flight follows a 48-hour delay due to poor weather conditions at the launch site.
The NS-20 mission is set to lift off at 10:30 a.m. CDT, or 9:30 a.m. EDT, from the company’s launch facility near Van Horn, Texas, toting five space tourists and the company’s own spacecraft designer.
You can watch the action live online, beginning roughly one hour before liftoff.
“Gary [Lai] is best known as the architect of the New Shepard system,” Blue Origin said in a statement. “He leads the team responsible for the design and development of many of the key safety systems on the Crew Capsule, and was among the [company’s] first 20 employees.”
Last week, Blue Origin announced that Lai would be flying in place of Pete Davidson, star of “Saturday Night Live,” after an undisclosed schedule conflict forced the comedian to back out of the flight.
Davidson’s loss is Lai’s gain — flying on the very rocket he helped design will enable both Lai and Blue Origin to evaluate the vehicle’s performance and safety features.
As Blue Origin ramps up its launch operations, having Lai fly will enable the company to better evaluate the Crew Capsule and its capabilities. Lai will also be joined by Marty Allen, married couple Sharon Hagle and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen and George Nield.
The New Shepard system consists of a rocket and a capsule, both of which are reusable. From launch to landing, each flight lasts approximately 11 minutes, with passengers experiencing weightlessness for roughly three minutes.
Shortly after liftoff, the crew capsule will separate from the rocket and descend independently under parachutes, touching down a few minutes after the booster.
Each New Shepard flight transports its customers and guests above the 62-mile Kármán line, a point in the atmosphere that’s generally seen as the boundary of space by international authorities.
However, where outer space actually begins is still a topic of some debate and a source of contention among the two companies. In fact, Blue Origin’s chief competitor, Virgin Galactic, flies just shy of the Kármán line, with Blue Origin CEO, Jeff Bezos, often pointing that out.
This mission, dubbed NS-20, will be New Shepard’s 20th flight overall, and just the fourth to carry a crew. Most of the previous flights were uncrewed tests or payload research flights.
New Shepard, named for Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space, carried its first crew of passengers on July 20, 2021 — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing — transporting Bezos himself; his brother Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year old aviation pioneer; and Oliver Daemen, the company’s first paying customer.
Blue Origin flew two additional crewed missions in 2021, including “Star Trek” captain William Shatner.
To date, the company has launched 16 people on a high-powered rocket ride to the edge of space and back. With a successful flight today, Blue will bring that number up to 22.
The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a flyaround of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on November 8. Photo courtesy of NASA
