{"id":17088,"date":"2025-09-29T20:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-reportedly-plans-to-expand-new-shepard-suborbital-space-fleet-and-launch-facilities\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T20:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:22:12","slug":"blue-origin-reportedly-plans-to-expand-new-shepard-suborbital-space-fleet-and-launch-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-reportedly-plans-to-expand-new-shepard-suborbital-space-fleet-and-launch-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin reportedly plans to expand New Shepard suborbital space fleet and launch facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"588\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ns-31_launch.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-892316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ns-31_launch.jpg 800w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ns-31_launch-768x564.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket ship lifts off for an suborbital trip in April. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The executive in charge of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital space program has laid out plans to scale up the operation for weekly launches \u2014 and says the company is looking into setting up a second launch site, perhaps outside the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Joyce, Blue Origin\u2019s senior vice president for New Shepard, discussed the road ahead over the weekend at the Global Spaceport Alliance\u2019s International Spaceport Forum in Sydney, Australia. His remarks were reported by Aviation Week as well as SpaceNews.<\/p>\n<p>Customer demand is a major factor behind the expansion plans. \u201cThe demand is really strong,\u201d SpaceNews quoted Joyce as saying. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to see sales every week, every day.\u201d Blue Origin\u2019s backlog reportedly extends more than a year out.<\/p>\n<p>To meet the demand, Jeff Bezos\u2019 space venture plans to phase in three next-generation New Shepard rocket ships starting next year, Joyce said. Those vehicles would be powered by an upgraded version of Blue Origin\u2019s hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine.<\/p>\n<p>The plan calls for retiring the two reusable rocket ships that are currently carrying crew by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2015, Blue Origin has been flying New Shepard suborbital spacecraft at its Launch Site One facility in West Texas. The first 15 flights were uncrewed, leading up to the first crewed flight (with Bezos on board) in 2021. Starting with that mission, Blue Origin has sent 75 people on suborbital space trips, five of whom have been on multiple flights.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New Shepard Flight Profile\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AYuoVty1OQ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Over the past year, Blue Origin has launched nine New Shepard missions, six of which carried crew. Joyce said that going to weekly flights would max out capacity at Launch Site One, and that Blue Origin is looking into offering New Shepard flights at a new location. \u201cWe are trying to find a partner that is willing to invest,\u201d Aviation Week quoted Joyce as saying.<\/p>\n<p>That site could be outside the U.S., depending in part on what\u2019s convenient for Blue Origin\u2019s customers. \u201cA lot of our target customer base, ultra-high net worth individuals, don\u2019t want to spend a day and a half getting to the destination, so that\u2019s a consideration,\u201d SpaceNews quoted Joyce as saying.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin hasn\u2019t disclosed how much its customers are paying to ride New Shepard \u2014 but during an auction that was conducted in advance of the first crewed flight in 2021, crypto billionaire Justin Sun bid $28 million for a ticket. Sun finally got his trip to space last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket ship lifts off for an suborbital trip in April. (Blue Origin Photo) The executive in charge of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard suborbital space program has laid out plans to scale up the operation for weekly launches \u2014 and says the company is looking into setting up a second launch site, [&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":[509,1250,493,4402],"class_list":["post-17088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-new-shepard","tag-space-tourism","tag-suborbital-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17088"}],"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=17088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}