{"id":17861,"date":"2019-12-11T21:20:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T13:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/after-weather-delay-blue-origin-counts-down-to-test-flight-of-suborbital-spaceship\/"},"modified":"2019-12-11T21:20:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T13:20:43","slug":"after-weather-delay-blue-origin-counts-down-to-test-flight-of-suborbital-spaceship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/after-weather-delay-blue-origin-counts-down-to-test-flight-of-suborbital-spaceship\/","title":{"rendered":"After weather delay, Blue Origin counts down to test flight of suborbital spaceship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_443983\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-443983\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-443983\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/180830-blueorigin-630x535.jpg\" alt=\"New Shepard booster landing\" width=\"630\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/180830-blueorigin-630x535.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/180830-blueorigin-768x652.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/180830-blueorigin-1260x1069.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-443983\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster touches down after a test flight in 2017. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is counting down to today\u2019s uncrewed flight test of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, with a cargo manifest that should warm kids\u2019 hearts for the holidays.<\/p>\n<p>The company plans to fly thousands of postcards&nbsp;that have been gathered through its educational program, known as the Club for the Future. It\u2019ll also send up two student-built art projects inspired by OK Go\u2019s geeky music videos.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the 12th New Shepard test mission, and it will mark the flight of Blue Origin\u2019s 100th commercial payload to space and back.<\/p>\n<p>Launch from Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas spaceport was originally set for Tuesday, but had to be postponed for a day due to weather concerns. After waiting for thefog to clear, the company reset the scheduled launch time to 11:43 a.m. CT (9:43 a.m. PT). Video coverage is available via Blue Origin\u2019s website and on YouTube:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Replay of NS-12 Live Webcast\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sUEj4dxPMbI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bezos kicked off the Club for the Future program in May, when he unveiled Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon lunar lander in Washington, D.C. Ever since then, Blue Origin has been collecting \u201cSpace Mail\u201d postcards, on which kids can draw or write up their vision for having millions of people living and working in space.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Bezos reported that postcards have been received from 22 countries. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the messages, and they are so hopeful and inspiring,\u201d he said on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>The postcards will go up to space and come back down on New Shepard. Then they\u2019ll be mailed back to their original senders.<\/p>\n<p>Another kid-friendly payload consists of two experiments that emerged as the winners of an \u201cArt in Space\u201d contest sponsored by OK Go. One project, devised by a trio of New York City students, aims to have bits of material rise up in zero-G and cover a magnetized wire-art sculpture, mimicking the process of primordial planetary accretion. The other project, proposed by students from Utah, aims to translate cosmic radiation readings recorded during New Shepard\u2019s flight into a musical composition.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin took note of two other payloads: a science experiment focusing on zero-G\u2019s impact on cell biology, developed at Columbia University with guidance from former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino; and an experiment from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center that will test a technology for converting trash and human waste into a mixture of gases that could be used for propulsion or life support.<\/p>\n<p>The main objective of the upcoming flight is to test New Shepard\u2019s reusable propulsion module and crew capsule in advance of flights with people on board. The most recent uncrewed trip took place in May.<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard is expected to start carrying people to heights beyond 100 kilometers (62 miles) sometime next year. The first to fly are likely to be Blue Origin staffers. Paying passengers would follow, but the company hasn\u2019t yet started taking reservations. Ticket prices are still up in the air, but Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith recently said they\u2019d be in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars to start.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the New Shepard suborbital space program and the Blue Moon lunar lander program, Blue Origin is working on an orbital-class New Glenn rocket that could start flying in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The hardware for New Shepard and for New Glenn\u2019s BE-4 rocket engine are currently built at Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash., which is being dramatically expanded. Eventually, BE-4 production will shift to Alabama, and New Glenn will be assembled in and launched from Florida.<\/p>\n<p><em>This report was originally published at 2:45 p.m. PT Dec. 8, and has since been updated with the latest launch report and other details.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard booster touches down after a test flight in 2017. (Blue Origin Photo) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is counting down to today\u2019s uncrewed flight test of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, with a cargo manifest that should warm kids\u2019 hearts for the holidays. The company plans to fly [&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":[509,291,1250],"class_list":["post-17861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-new-shepard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17861"}],"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=17861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}