{"id":17165,"date":"2024-10-15T19:24:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T11:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-donates-historic-new-shepard-booster-and-space-capsule-to-smithsonian\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T11:24:42","slug":"blue-origin-donates-historic-new-shepard-booster-and-space-capsule-to-smithsonian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-donates-historic-new-shepard-booster-and-space-capsule-to-smithsonian\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin donates historic New Shepard booster and space capsule to Smithsonian"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Blue Origin New Shepard booster at Smithsonian\" class=\"wp-image-844514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows how Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster, emblazoned with a faded feather, would be displayed at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum. (Smithsonian Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture has donated a New Shepard rocket booster, plus a New Shepard capsule, to the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum.<\/p>\n<p>The history-making hardware will go on display at the museum\u2019s main building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in renovated galleries due to open in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no better final landing pad for New Shepard than the Smithsonian,\u201d Bezos said in a statement. \u201cWe are honored and grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reusable booster, known as Propulsion Module 4-2, was employed for five uncrewed flights \u2014 ranging from the New Shepard program\u2019s first successful booster landing in 2015 to an escape system test that could have destroyed the propulsion module in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Before that final outing for the booster, Bezos said it would be put on display if it survived. \u201cWe\u2019d really like to retire it after this test and put it in a museum,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cSadly, that\u2019s not likely. This test will probably destroy the booster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for the Smithsonian, Bezos\u2019 prediction was wrong. The scorched but intact booster was exhibited at a variety of events, including the 2017 Space Symposium in Colorado, and most recently was on display at Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket factory in Florida.<\/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=\"Inside look at the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket booster and crew capsule\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K1H6QwxUTR8?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>Propulsion Module 4-2 is now being prepared for a spot in the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s RTX Living in the Space Age Hall, which features Space Age artifacts going back to the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRockets are the place where this all starts \u2014 that\u2019s how we get to space in the first place,\u201d Smithsonian Magazine quoted curator Colleen Anderson as saying. \u201cThey\u2019re both in the physical center, but also the thematic center of this exhibit. So, for instance, we have a full-scale Juno 1 rocket, which launched Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. And if we put New Shepard next to it in the gallery, this allows us to extend the story of launch vehicles to the present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The donated Blue Origin crew capsule went into service after Propulsion Module 4-2 was retired, but it\u2019s arguably just as historic. In 2021, the RSS First Step, with RSS standing for \u201cReusable Space Ship,\u201d carried the first people to ride New Shepard to the edge of space and back. The crew included Bezos himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited about this object in particular, because RSS First Step has enabled 43 new astronauts to go into space over the period of three years,\u201d curator Emily Margolis told Smithsonian Magazine. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a really big deal for those 43 people who might not have had pathways to space otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RSS First Step is still in service, most recently to send a crew of six on a suborbital space trip in August. Now Blue Origin is getting a brand-new capsule capable of carrying humans, dubbed the RSS Karman Line, ready to join the New Shepard fleet.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard2-630x354.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration: Blue Origin New Shepard capsule at Smithsonian\" class=\"wp-image-844537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard2-630x354.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/241015-newshepard2.jpg 1072w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard crew capsule on display in the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Futures in Space gallery. (Smithsonian Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When First Step is decommissioned, it\u2019ll go on display in the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Futures in Space gallery, which focuses on advances in space exploration technology and enterprise. In the meantime, a full-scale mockup of the crew capsule will be exhibited in its place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan\u2019t wait for this exhibit and the impact it and other historic space artifacts will have on the millions of people who will visit and dream about their own space journeys,\u201d Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a posting to X \/ Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time a Seattle-area billionaire has played a role in getting space artifacts to the Smithsonian. Hardware from Apollo 11\u2019s Saturn V rocket was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in 2013 with funding from Bezos \u2014 and is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Rocket components that Bezos\u2019 team recovered from other Apollo missions are on view at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight.)<\/p>\n<p>Yet another piece of space history \u2014 the SpaceShipOne rocket plane that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight in 2004 \u2014 was donated to the Smithsonian by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen a year later. It\u2019s now hanging next to Charles Lindbergh\u2019s Spirit of St. Louis airplane in the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Milestones of Flight Hall. (SpaceShipOne\u2019s mothership, known as the White Knight, is on display at the Flying Heritage &amp; Combat Armor Museum at Paine Field in Everett, Wash.)<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Previously: Jeff Bezos donates $200M to Smithsonian<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows how Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster, emblazoned with a faded feather, would be displayed at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum. (Smithsonian Illustration) Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture has donated a New Shepard rocket booster, plus a New Shepard capsule, to the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum. The [&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":[509,4472,1250,3167],"class_list":["post-17165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-national-air-and-space-museum","tag-new-shepard","tag-smithsonian"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17165"}],"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=17165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}