{"id":10608,"date":"2022-03-31T20:43:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-flies-fourth-suborbital-crew-mission\/"},"modified":"2022-03-31T20:43:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:43:45","slug":"blue-origin-flies-fourth-suborbital-crew-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-flies-fourth-suborbital-crew-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin flies fourth suborbital crew mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_56169\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56169\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56169\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20postflight.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"671\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20postflight.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20postflight-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20postflight-678x379.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20postflight-768x429.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56169\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Recovery teams meet Blue Origin\u2019s crew capsule after landing in West Texas on Thursday. The New Shepard booster is visible on its landing pad in the background. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital launcher lofted six passengers, including the rocket\u2019s chief designer, on an up-and-down flight to the edge of space Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>After a series of countdown holds, the commercial space company launched the single-stage New Shepard rocket from West Texas at 9:58 a.m. EDT (1358 GMT; 8:58 a.m. CDT).<\/p>\n<p>The mission lasted a little more than 10 minutes from liftoff until touchdown of Blue Origin\u2019s crew capsule, which returned to the company\u2019s sprawling test facility for landing just a couple of miles from the launch pad.<\/p>\n<p>The 60-foot-tall (18-meter) reusable New Shepard rocket, powered by a BE-3 engine, launched six passengers to an altitude just above 351,000 feet (107 kilometers), the internationally-recognized boundary of space.<\/p>\n<p>The flight, designated NS-20, was Blue Origin\u2019s fourth launch to haul human passengers to suborbital space, and the 20th flight of a New Shepard rocket since 2015, including experimental test flights to prove out the system before carrying people.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rujDVDit02Y\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The passengers on the NS-20 mission included George Nield, a longtime proponent of commercial spaceflight, and Gary Lai, a Blue Origin engineer and chief architect of the New Shepard space tourism program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know that words could do that justice,\u201d Lai said after landing. \u201cYou just have to feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He described the sensation of his first flight in remarks after leaving the crew capsule, explaining how he felt as the BE-3 engine throttled down just before it cut off, allowing the passengers to unstrap from their seats and float in zero-gravity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt my skin pulling taut, and I think more dramatic than even 0G was the throttle back from 3G when we throttled down,\u201d Lai said. \u201cI felt like I was rising then. The entire time I was in 0G I felt like I was falling toward the ceiling. It was intense, and I did get a little bit of feeling of vertigo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know most of the astronauts have said in the past that they haven\u2019t felt nauseous, I did feel a little bit of nausea for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Nield is the former head of the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s commercial space division, the regulatory and licensing body for commercial spaceflight operations in the United States. Before his time at the FAA, Nield worked for Orbital Sciences Corp., served as a flight test engineer at the Air Force Flight Test Center, and was manager of the flight integration office for NASA\u2019s space shuttle program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve really been interested in space since I was a child,\u201d Nield said in a pre-flight interview tweeted by Blue Origin. \u201cI used to cut out articles in the newspaper about the space camps and the Mercury astronauts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lai became the third member of the Blue Origin team to fly to space on the New Shepard rocket. The company\u2019s first mission with humans last July carried Blue Origin\u2019s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos and three co-passengers, and a second human flight in October included Audrey Powers, the company\u2019s vice president of New Shepard mission and flight operations, alongside actor William Shatner and two other crewmates.<\/p>\n<p>The third New Shepard human flight Dec. 11 was the first to launch with a crew of six, including former NFL player and TV host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of late NASA astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_56162\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56162\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56162\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20crewhuddle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20crewhuddle.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20crewhuddle-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20crewhuddle-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ns20crewhuddle-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56162\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The NS-20 crew, from left to right: Gary Lai, George Nield, Jim Kitchen, Marty Allen, Sharon Hagle, and Marc Hagle. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cLooking out the window and seeing a black sky and the curvature of the Earth is really going to be special,\u201d Nield said before the launch. \u201cTo be able to fly with this crew, including Gary Lai, who\u2019s had such a major role in creating New Shepard, is just very special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a Blue Origin corporate interview, Lai said he has worked on the New Shepard program \u201cfrom the very beginning.\u201d&nbsp;He was one of the first 20 Blue Origin employees, joining the company in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in every single aspect of the design and the production of the vehicles,\u201d Lai said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a once in a lifetime, a once in a career, opportunity to follow a program from start to finish to such a major goal,\u201d Lai said before the flight. \u201cSo I hope I will feel that it was as meaningful as the amount of time and energy that we\u2019ve put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lai replaced comedian Pete Davidson, who Blue Origin originally announced as a passenger on the NS-20 mission. Blue Origin said the Saturday Night Live cast member was \u201cno longer able to join\u201d the mission after a launch delay from March 23.<\/p>\n<p>Marty Allen, another NS-20 crew member, is a turnaround CEO and angel investor from California. Jim Kitchen is a teacher and entrepreneur from North Carolina who has visited all 193 U.N.-recognized countries.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon and Marc Hagle, a Florida couple, rounded out the NS-20 crew.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Hagle is founder of SpaceKids Global, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring children to excel in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. Her husband, Marc, is president and CEO of the real estate firm Tricor International.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_45969\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45969\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45969\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BlueOrigin_NewShepard_FlightProfile.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BlueOrigin_NewShepard_FlightProfile.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BlueOrigin_NewShepard_FlightProfile-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BlueOrigin_NewShepard_FlightProfile-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/BlueOrigin_NewShepard_FlightProfile-678x381.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This diagram illustrates the flight profile for a typical New Shepard launch and landing. Credit: Blue Origin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The capsule that flew on the NS-20 mission is named \u201cRSS First Step,\u201d with RSS standing for Reusable Spaceship. The rocket is Tail No. 4 in Blue Origin\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n<p>Powered by a hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine, the single-stage New Shepard booster climbed through the atmosphere after taking off from Blue Origin\u2019s launch pad.&nbsp;The BE-3 engine fired for more than two minutes, then the rocket separated from the crew capsule before coasting to their apogee altitude and beginning their descent back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The booster stage deployed drag brakes, reignited the BE-3 engine, and extended a landing gear before touching down on a landing pad just north of the launch site. The capsule, meanwhile, unfurled three main parachutes and fired braking rockets to cushion the landing on the desert floor at Blue Origin\u2019s remote West Texas test complex.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recovery teams meet Blue Origin\u2019s crew capsule after landing in West Texas on Thursday. The New Shepard booster is visible on its landing pad in the background. Credit: Blue Origin Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital launcher lofted six passengers, including the rocket\u2019s chief designer, on an up-and-down flight to the edge of space Thursday. After [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}