Blue Origin

Early Thursday morning, Blue Origin fueled up and launched its New Shepard rocket at its West Texas launch site. Onboard were six passengers, including the chief architect of the rocket.

As part of its Artemis program, NASA announced plans to fund a second lunar lander alongside SpaceX’s Starship HLS.

NS-20, Blue Origin’s fourth human flight, is set to launch in just over a week. We’ve been waiting for the announcement of the sixth crew member after Pete Davidson left the crew. Now, that sixth crew member has been announced: Gary Lai, the senior director and chief architect of New Shepard, will be riding the vehicle he’s spent so long designing into space.

Blue Origin is preparing for its fourth human flight, and as previously rumored, SNL star Pete Davidson will take the flight this time around.

Back in June, Blue Origin’s auction for a seat on the first crewed flight of New Shepard ended with a $28 million bid. Yet as the first flight came around the winner was not announced. Instead, 18 year old Oliver Daemon joined the first flight and became the youngest person to fly in space.

Blue Origin only said that ‘scheduling issues’ stopped the auction winner from participating in the flight, but did not reveal the winner’s identity. Now the winner has been revealed as H.E. Justin Sun, and five people will be invited to join him on his journey to space.

On Saturday morning, the crew of Blue Origin’s NS-19 launched just past the boundary of space. This time the New Shepard capsule was full.

Watch Alan Shepard’s eldest daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and Good Morning American co-anchor Michael Strahan launch to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

This has been a big year for Space Tourism, from the sub-orbital hops of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson to the multi-day orbital journey of the Inspiration4 crew. This raised a number of questions about what it means to be an astronaut. Many claimed that these space-tourists are nothing but passengers, and calling them astronauts dilutes the title provided to space heroes like Neil Armstrong, while others said that reaching space should be enough for the title. The FAA has now put this question to bed, issuing this year’s space tourists FAA Commercial Astronaut wings, but shutting down the program moving forward.

On Thursday, NASA announced the selected contractors to develop designs for the future commercial space stations to replace the International Space Station.

On this Thanksgiving week we had some major events and updates come from the spaceflight industry. Catch up on what happened below.

In a new permit application, Blue Origin lays out the foundation for its continued Florida presence long into the future. Blue details near and future improvements to the south campus of its manufacturing facility located in Exploration Park.

Tuesday, NASA held a press conference to give an update on the agency’s Artemis program. During the conference, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced delays to the launches of Artemis II and III.

Today the federal judge overseeing the Blue Origin lawsuit against NASA and SpaceX made his decision. Blue Origin, of course, lost the lawsuit, but will this be the end?

Updated with statements from Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos.

At COP26, a climate conference, Jeff Bezos pledged $2 billion of the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund to be dedicated for land restoration and food production. While speaking on the matter he cited how much seeing Earth from space changes the way in which you view the planet.

Blue Origin announced on Monday official plans to build a commercial space station named Orbit Reef.

Since 2000 humanity has had a constant presence of individuals orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station. With the rise of commercial opportunities to reach for the stars, and other nations begin their crew launch programs, when is the next crewed launch?

Blue Origin launched their second human spaceflight today, marking the fifth New Shepard launch this year. On this flight of New Shepard, it carried a very special guest.

Blue Origin is preparing to launch NS-18 from their West Texas facility with a crew of four on Wednesday. NS-18 will be the company’s second crewed flight, with the most notable member being William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk from Star Trek. The launch will be a short hop above 100 km to give the crew about 4 minutes of weightlessness. Check below for updates on the launch of NS-18.

Date: Wednesday, October 13 at 10:50 a.m. EDT

Blue Origin is preparing to launch William Shatner and three more crew members to space Wednesday; here is how to watch NS-18.

Blue Origin is preparing to launch their second crewed New Shepard in less than ten days. After a TMZ report stated he had a ticket, Blue Origin confirms Star Trek actor William Shatner will be on this next flight.