Tag: New Shepard
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Watch Blue Origin fly its first capsule that’s designed to send people to space and back
Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule is designed to send up to six people to the edge of space and back. (Blue Origin Photoillustration) Update: The uncrewed test flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship has been rescheduled for launch at 10:57 a.m. CT (8:57 a.m. PT). Previously: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin…
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Preparing for “Earth to Earth” space travel and a competition with supersonic airliners
Commercial spaceflight companies are preparing to enter a new market: suborbital flights from one place to another on Earth. Aiming for fast transportation for passengers and cargo, these systems are being developed by a combination of established companies, such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and new ones like Astra. Technical and business challenges lie ahead…
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Blue Origin tests NASA landing system hardware on latest New Shepard flight
After a ten-month lull in flights following the previous test of Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard launch system, the company conducted a launch and landing of the fully reusable booster and capsule duo. Following weather-related and technical issues during a window late in September, the flight took place from the company’s West Texas facility —…
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Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceship tests NASA’s moon landing system in Texas
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship rises from its West Texas pad. (Blue Origin via YouTube) Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceship today conducted a robotic rehearsal for a future touchdown on the moon — and by all appearances, it stuck the landing. Testing most of the elements of NASA’s precision lunar landing system was the top…
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After weeks of delay, Blue Origin sets up suborbital space mission to test NASA landing technology
Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard booster makes its landing in December 2019. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is now targeting Tuesday for the launch of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship on an uncrewed mission to the edge of space and back, to try out a precision landing system for…
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NASA touts lunar landing tech, and Blue Origin says there’ll be a flight test ‘soon’
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship makes a precision landing in May 2019. (Blue Origin Photo) Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong famously had to dodge a boulder-strewn crater just seconds before the first moon landing in 1969 — but for future lunar touchdowns, NASA expects robotic eyes to see such missions to safe landings. And…
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Artists create paintings designed to be tempered in space on Blue Origin’s rocket
Jeff Hein works in his art studio, testing his paints and creative processes on an exterior panel of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship. (Uplift Aerospace Photo) Uplift Aerospace and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket venture plan to put paintings where virtually no art has gone before: on the side of a rocket…
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NASA developing plans to fly astronauts on suborbital rockets
File photo of a New Shepard launch. Credit: Blue Origin NASA says it is interested in flying astronauts and scientists on commercial suborbital vehicles, like those being tested by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, to provide additional training and research opportunities augmenting missions to the orbiting International Space Station. The space agency announced this week…
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NASA lays out a plan to qualify suborbital spacecraft for its astronauts and scientists
Blue Origin employees test procedures for getting spacefliers into the New Shepard suborbital spaceship at the company’s launch facility in West Texas. (Blue Origin via YouTube) NASA says it’ll formulate a plan to assess the safety of suborbital spacecraft — such as Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship or Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane —…
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NASA gets set to put astronauts on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic suborbital flights
Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut trainer, Beth Moses, exults over the view out the window of the company’s VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane during a suborbital spaceflight in February 2019. (Virgin Galactic Photo) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine signaled today that astronauts would soon be cleared to take suborbital spaceflights aboard the commercial rocket ships being tested…