![]() But the coronavirus outbreak contributed to months of delay in the development program. When 2020 began, Blue Origin’s executives had hoped that people would start taking suborbital space trips on New Shepard by the end of the year. Blue Origin has been putting New Shepard through its paces for five years in preparation for flying paying passengers to the edge of space and back, and this mission marked one more not-so-small step toward those crewed flights. Testing the landing system wasn’t the only to-do item for today. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Thanks to NASA for partnering with us, and congrats to the Blue Origin team on taking another step toward returning to the moon to stay.”īezos weighed in as well, with an Instagram post that gave “huge kudos” to the teams at Blue Origin and NASA. “Using New Shepard to simulate landing on the moon is an exciting precursor to what the Artemis program will bring to America. “Today’s flight was inspiring,” Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in a statement issued after the landing. In a pre-launch interview, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said suborbital flight tests like the one flown today play a “critically important” role in preparations for future Artemis moon missions. The guidance system may well be used on the lunar lander that Blue Origin and its commercial partners are offering for NASA’s use.īlue Origin conducted the practice run under the terms of a $3 million Tipping Point grant from NASA. In the months ahead, NASA will analyze SPLICE’s performance and make plans with Blue Origin for a follow-up test. The flight took just over 10 minutes, from liftoff to the capsule’s touchdown.ĭuring today’s flight, NASA’s system operated in parallel with Blue Origin’s guidance system. “It almost looks fake, every single time.” “That never gets old to watch that rocket,” launch commentator Caitlin Dietrich said from Blue Origin’s home base in Kent, Wash. Just before landing, the booster relit its hydrogen-fueled engine in retro-rocket mode to fly itself autonomously to its landing pad for a record seventh time. Meanwhile, the booster made a supersonic descent. Toward the top of the ride, the capsule separated and floated back down to the Texas desert at the end of a parachute. That’s beyond the 100-kilometer level that marks the internationally accepted boundary of outer space. ![]() PT), sending a capsule stuffed with scientific experiments at a maximum speed of 2,232 mph to an altitude in excess of 65 miles (346,964 feet, or 105 kilometers). New Shepard’s reusable booster blasted off from Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceport in West Texas at 8:37 a.m. ![]() It took more than two weeks for Blue Origin to resolve all the technical issues. 24, but the launch was scrubbed due to a potential issue with the power supply for one of the 12 commercial payloads on board. New Shepard’s flight had initially been scheduled for Sept. Testing most of the elements of NASA’s precision lunar landing system was the top item on the agenda for today’s mission, which represented the 13th uncrewed test flight of a New Shepard spacecraft for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space venture. (Blue Origin via YouTube)īlue Origin’s suborbital spaceship today conducted a robotic rehearsal for a future touchdown on the moon - and by all appearances, it stuck the landing. Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship rises from its West Texas pad.
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