New Shepard, reusable launch vehicle, Blue Origin, LLC, Kent, Washington, USA

Highlights from Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle as it makes its first developmental test flight.

Click to expand...

Long distance tracking of Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle as it makes its first flight, carrying its crew capsule to 307,000 feet and returning it safely to Earth.

Click to expand...

Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle successfully flew to space, reaching its planned test altitude of 329,839 feet (100.5 kilometers) before executing a historic landing back at the launch site in West Texas.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the next age of space exploration: reusable rockets. Get the details on the landing by Blue Origin, run by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Meanwhile, questions swirl over Amazon's security with forced password resets.

Click to expand...

Historic Rocket Landing
Blue Origin HQ
November 23, 2015

Click to expand...

Is it really fair to compare the two companies' vertical rocket landings? Not exactly. Loren Grush explains.

"Why you shouldn't compare Blue Origin's rocket landing to SpaceX"

by Loren Grush
November 24, 2015

Click to expand...

Our vision: millions of people living and working in space. You can’t get there by throwing the hardware away. Watch the re-flight!

Click to expand...

The very same New Shepard booster that flew above the Karman line and then landed vertically at its launch site last November has now flown and landed again, demonstrating reuse. This time, New Shepard reached an apogee of 333,582 feet (101.7 kilometers) before both capsule and booster gently returned to Earth for recovery and reuse.

Click to expand...

New Shepard flew again on April 2, 2016 reaching an apogee of 339,178 feet or 103 kilometers. It was the third flight with the same hardware. We pushed the envelope on this flight, restarting the engine for the propulsive landing only 3,600 feet above the ground, requiring the BE-3 engine to start fast and ramp to high thrust fast.

Click to expand...

Blue Origin's same New Shepard launched and landed three times on 23 November 2015, 22 January 2016 and 2 April 2016.

Click to expand...

Replay of live webcast of New Shepard flight four of same hardware.

Click to expand...

New Shepard flew again on June 19, 2016, reaching an apogee of 331,504 feet (101.042 kilometers). It was the fourth flight with this booster and the sixth flight of this capsule. This time, we intentionally did not deploy one of three parachutes on the capsule and proved we could softly land with only two of them open. We’ve designed the capsule to have one or two levels of redundancy in every system needed for crew safety, including the separation systems, parachutes, reaction control thrusters, landing retro-thrusters, flight computers, and power systems. We also changed the ascending trajectory of the booster to adopt a more aggressive tilt towards our landing pad to the north after liftoff. We did this maneuver to test the ascent trajectory we will use during Transonic Escape Test, planned for later this year. During Transonic Escape Test, we will intentionally fire the capsule’s solid-rocket escape motor in-flight at transonic speeds to divert and propel it away from a fully thrusting booster and demonstrate we can safely recover the capsule.

Click to expand...

Live webcast of New Shepard in-flight escape test.

Click to expand...

On October 5, 2016, New Shepard performed an in-flight test of the capsule’s full-envelope escape system, designed to quickly propel the crew capsule to safety if a problem is detected with the booster. At T+0:45 and 16,053 feet (4,893 meters), the capsule separated and the escape motor fired, pushing the capsule safely away from the booster. Reaching an apogee of 23,269 feet (7,092 meters), the capsule then descended under parachutes to a gentle landing on the desert floor. After the capsule escape, the booster continued its ascent, reaching an apogee of 307,458 feet (93,713 meters). At T+7:29, the booster executed a controlled, vertical landing back at the West Texas Launch Site, completing its fifth and final mission.

Click to expand...

New Shepard flew again for the seventh time on Dec. 12, 2017, from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 7 (M7), the mission featured the next-generation booster and the first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0. Crew Capsule 2.0 features large windows, measuring 2.4 feet wide, 3.6 feet tall. M7 also included 12 commercial, research and education payloads onboard. Crew Capsule 2.0 reached an apogee of 322,405 feet AGL/326,075 feet MSL (98.27 kilometers AGL/99.39 kilometers MSL). The booster reached an apogee of 322,032 feet AGL/325,702 feet MSL (98.16 kilometers AGL/99.27 kilometers MSL).

Click to expand...

New Shepard reusable launch system launched and landed at Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site, on 29 April 2018, at 17:06 UTC (12:06 CDT). For Blue Origin’s Mission 8, the New Shepard Crew Capsule 2.0 transported the mannequin “Skywalker”, to conduct astronaut telemetry, and commercial payloads Suborbital Flight Experiment Monitor-2 (SFEM-2), Schmitt Space Communicator (SC-1x), Daphnia, EQUIPAGE and EUPHORIE. The New Shepard system is a fully reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) space vehicle.
Credit:Blue Origin

Click to expand...

New Shepard flew again for the eighth time on April 29, 2018, from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 8 (M8), the mission featured a reflight of the vehicle flown on Mission 7. The Crew Capsule reached an apogee of 351,000 feet (66 miles, 107 kilometers) – the altitude we’ve been targeting for operations.

For the second time, Blue Origin’s test dummy “Mannequin Skywalker” flew to space conducting astronaut telemetry and science studies. The flight also carried research payloads for NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and commercial customers.

Click to expand...

The more we fly the better we get. Safety and reliability are paramount. Our rigorous test program with New Shepard is putting the vehicle through the paces. We have successfully completed several crew capsule escape tests showing that our astronauts will be safe in any phase of flight. In addition to our test program, our payloads program is driving more flights of the system as we iterate on operations and technology in preparation for human spaceflight. All the learnings from the New Shepard program are being flowed into New Glenn development as we scale up our capabilities to serve the orbital market. Visit us at www.blueorigin.com to learn more.

Click to expand...