This week Blue Origin launched its NS-31 mission carrying a crew of six above the Karman Line for a short 11-minute flight. The flight was historic for being the first all-female spaceflight since 1963 and was marketed as a feminist movement, but some have doubts it did anything. So, are PR stunt suborbital spaceflights getting old? Or is it just Blue Origin’s take on them?
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After being first reported over two years ago, Blue Origin has finally released details on its first all-female New Shepard mission, commanded by helicopter pilot, entrepreneur, and girlfriend of Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez.
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Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has announced a 10% reduction in its workforce, affecting approximately 1,400 employees across its Florida, Texas, and Washington facilities. The layoffs, disclosed February 13, signal a strategic shift for the company as it moves away from heavy research and development and focuses on scaling up production of its New Glenn rocket and other key projects.Â
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Tuesday morning, Blue Origin launches its 29th New Shepard mission from West Texas. While the missions have become rather mundane, this time the company was able to spin the capsule up to simulate lunar gravity for the payloads it carried.
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Blue Origin announced Wednesday its crew for the NS-26 missions. On board will be several high achieving and and lucky individuals that will get the chance to fly and feel weightlessness above the Karman Line. One of the crew members, a daughter of a previous participant, will become the youngest woman to reach 100 km.
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Following a long delay in flights, Blue Origin is returning to crewed spaceflight missions for its New Shepard rocket, with a launch date scheduled for May 19. The missions will carry six customers to an altitude just above the Karman Line.
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After a one day delay to fix a technical issue, Blue Origin successfully launched its NS-24 mission Tuesday morning. This marked the company’s first flight in over 15 months after NS-23 suffered an anomaly mid-flight.
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With a post on social media, Blue Origin announced its return to flight for the New Shepard rocket. Flying science equipment and postcards from its charity Club for the Future, launch is set for no earlier than December 18.
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On Wednesday the FAA announced it has closed the mishap investigation it oversaw of Blue Origin’s failed NS-23 mission that took place one year ago. With the investigation now finished, Blue Origin plans to return to flight “soon.”
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According to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, We might finally see a Blue Origin rocket launch after a year of down time. The flight would be the company’s first since suffering a failure of the New Shepard booster which led to the loss of the booster.
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Last September, Blue Origin suffered an inflight failure of an uncrewed New Shepard rocket. Friday, the company released its findings from its investigation into the failure.
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Remember in 2021 when we were so excited that both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic would come online and show a glimpse of a potential space tourism boom? Yet here we are with some exciting news, but neither company is currently capable of launching, and we don’t know when they will return fully. Sigh.
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Since 2015 Blue Origin has been launching its New Shepard suborbital rocket from its facility in Van Horne, Texas. Additionally, in 2021 Blue Origin began launching paying customers atop its rocket for a 10-minute joy ride. The next launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, this time without crew is set for September 12 at 8:30 a.m. CDT. [Launch failure, read more here]
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On Blue Origin’s 23rd flight of New Shepard, NS-23, the uncrewed capsule ignited its abort system to get clear from the New Shepard rocket as flame appeared around the rocket main engine as the rocket crossed 28,000 feet.
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Coby Cotton, one of the five members of Dude Perfect, launched on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket early Thursday morning. Cotton’s participation is part of a partnership between the trick shooting YouTubers and a crypto company called MoonDAO.
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Robin Hood holds an annual benefit to fight against poverty in New York City, and as a result of that auction, two New York City public school teachers will be getting a ride to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
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While Richard Branson may have won the ‘billionaire space race‘ in one way, the fact that Virgin Galactic hasn’t flown since makes it clear that the real winners here are Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Looking toward Blue Origin’s fifth crewed spaceflight, the company will have a repeat passenger, as Evan Dick is set to take the joyride to space and back once again after his first flight late last year.
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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.
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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.
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Pete Davidson’s planned flight to space was rumored long before it was announced, then Blue Origin confirmed the rumor earlier this week, announcing that Davidson and five customers would be flying to space on NS-20. Now, a new member will be selected to take Davidson’s place, as he is “no longer able to join the NS-20 crew on this mission.”
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Blue Origin is preparing for its fourth human flight, and as previously rumored, SNL star Pete Davidson will take the flight this time around.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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