Blue Origin to Resume New Shepard Rocket Launches After Year-Long Hiatus
Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Jeff Bezos, is set to launch its New Shepard rocket for the first time in over a year. The company announced on Tuesday that it is targeting a launch window that opens on December 18 for its next New Shepard payload mission. This news comes after Bloomberg reported the target date.
The upcoming launch, titled NS-24, will be a cargo mission carrying research and scientific payloads. This mission marks the return to flight for the suborbital rocket after a more than 14-month hiatus caused by a midlaunch failure during a cargo mission in September 2022.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already closed its investigation into the failed NS-23 mission earlier this year. As a result of the investigation, the agency required Blue Origin to make corrective actions to improve structural performance during operation and implement organizational changes within the company.
The New Shepard rocket is launched from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas. It carries people and payloads above 100 kilometers (more than 340,000 feet) for a couple of minutes of weightlessness. The capsule is flown autonomously without a human pilot and lands in the Texas desert with the assistance of parachutes. The rocket booster is reusable and returns to land on a concrete pad near the launch site.
To date, Blue Origin has successfully flown 31 people past the edge of space with the New Shepard rocket.
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