BLUE ORIGIN

#NewShepard has flown 15 successful consecutive missions to space and back above the Kármán Line through a meticulous and incremental flight program to test its multiple redundant safety systems. Now, it’s time for astronauts to climb onboard.

On July 20th, #NewShepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space. We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of our online auction. Starting today, anyone can place an opening bid by going to BlueOrigin.com. The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space. This seat will change how you see the world. #GradatimFerociter

It's Time. You can buy the very first seat on #NewShepard. Sign up to learn how at www.blueorigin.com. Details coming May 5th. #GradatimFerociter

Blue Origin successfully completed its 15th consecutive mission to space and back today and conducted a series of simulations to rehearse astronaut movements and operations for future flights with customers on board. This mission marked a verification step prior to flying astronauts. For the first time, Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entered the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts conducted a series of tests from within the capsule including a comms check with the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM), procedures for entering and exiting the capsule, and pre-launch preparations within the capsule. Following the crew capsule landing, the astronauts rehearsed post-flight procedures, hatch opening, and exiting the capsule.

Blue Origin has been flight testing the New Shepard rocket and its redundant safety systems since 2012. The program has completed 15 consecutive successful missions, including three successful tests of the crew escape system, showing it can activate safely in any phase of flight.

Take a tour of Launch Site One, nestled in the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas, where astronauts will fly to space and back onboard New Shepard.

CrewMember 7 is a unique role at Blue Origin. There are two assigned to each astronaut flight for New Shepard—one is embedded with the astronauts to help them ingress and egress the capsule while the other serves as Capsule Communications (CAPCOM) during the flight. Learn more about their unique and important role in astronaut training and flight operations at Blue Origin.

Historic Launch Complex 36 is being built from the ground up and we have invested $1 billion in the project. Here’s a first look at the pad – including the “Road to Space” New Glenn will travel on prior to flight.

We use the Tank Cleaning and Testing (TCAT) facility to pressure test and clean New Glenn’s stages before flight. This massive building will be used for the fully reusable first stage which stands tall at 180 feet.

Check out the recent progress at our New Glenn rocket factory at Cape Canaveral. We are testing flight operations with the giant stage 1 simulator, producing flight hardware, and growing the integration and test facilities around the campus.

At our Huntsville, Alabama factory, we built a full-scale pathfinder of our Descent Element lander in preparation for our demonstration mission. This mission will happen a year before landing crew on the Moon. By proving out our technology and pre-positioning equipment, it will start America’s sustainable return to the Moon. To learn more about the Blue Origin-led HLS National Team, visit: www.blueorigin.com/blue-moon/national-team

Blue Origin successfully completed its 14th mission to space and back for the New Shepard program on Thursday, January 14, 2021. Mission NS-14 featured a crew capsule outfitted with astronaut experience upgrades for upcoming flights with astronauts onboard. This flight continued to prove the robustness and stability of the New Shepard system and the BE-3PM liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine. Also onboard today were more than 50,000 postcards from Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future. All mission crew supporting this launch exercised strict social distancing and safety measures to mitigate COVID-19 risks to personnel, customers, and surrounding communities. Learn more about this mission on BlueOrigin.com: http://bit.ly/35EJ76D

The Blue Origin-led National Team submitted its Option A proposal to land the first woman and next man on the Moon in partnership with NASA. Blue Origin leads the HLS National Team, which includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper. Together, these partners guided Apollo, established routine orbit cargo transfer, developed today’s only crewed lunar spaceship, and pioneered planetary precision landing with liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen vehicles. During the base period alone, the National Team is completing 25 technical demonstrations and counting, making key progress toward NASA’s mission. Learn more about the technical demonstrations and the approach to get America back to the Moon to stay: https://bit.ly/33UXOl3

On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, Blue Origin launched mission NS-13 to space and back. On this flight, New Shepard flew 12 commercial payloads, including the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership. This was the first payload to fly mounted on the exterior of a New Shepard booster, opening the door to a wide range of future high-altitude sensing, sampling, and exposure payloads. Learn more about this mission and the payloads flown on New Shepard on BlueOrigin.com: https://bit.ly/3hVUUkt.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joined the New Shepard NS-13 webcast to talk about a key experiment on board, the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership. Learn more about NS-13 here: https://bit.ly/3hVUUkt.

Blue Origin successfully completed the 13th New Shepard mission on October 13, 2020. New Shepard flew 12 commercial payloads to space on this mission, including the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership. This was the first payload to fly mounted on the exterior of a New Shepard booster rather than inside the capsule, opening the door to a wide range of future high-altitude sensing, sampling, and exposure payloads. Also on board were tens of thousands of postcards from students around the world from Blue Origin’s nonprofit, Club for the Future, some of which will include a special NASA Artemis stamp. With this successful mission, New Shepard has flown more than 100 payloads to space across 10 sequential flights. All mission crew supporting this launch exercised strict social distancing and safety measures to mitigate COVID-19 risks to personnel, customers, and surrounding communities. Learn more about this mission and the payloads flown on New Shepard on BlueOrigin.com: https://bit.ly/367AcM3.

The Blue Origin-led Human Landing System (HLS) National Team – comprised of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper – delivered an engineering mockup of a crew lander vehicle that could take American astronauts to the Moon. The lander is set up in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF), NASA Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) iconic Building 9.  The full-scale engineering mockup showcases two elements of the National Team’s multi-element architecture – the Ascent Element (AE) and Descent Element (DE). Standing at more than 40 feet, it is the Blue Origin National Team’s update to Apollo’s Lunar Module (LM) and will be used to validate the National Team’s approaches for getting crew, equipment, supplies, and samples off and on the vehicle. The team will collaborate with NASA organizations including JSC’s Astronaut Office to perform engineering and crew operations tests with astronauts aiming to fly the final system within several years. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/32ohvAv

The National Team HLS design leverages significant prior work, flight heritage, and a modular solution. Modular solutions help to enable faster progress due to the independent development and testing of each element, which permits ongoing improvements and evolution without impacting the full system.  This also provides flexibility in the use of different launch vehicles and different concepts of operations.   The Descent Element is based on Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander and BE-7 LOX/hydrogen engine, both in development for more than three years. The Ascent Element incorporates avionics, software, life support hardware, crew interfaces, and mission operations from Lockheed Martin’s human-rated, deep-space Orion vehicle that will fly on the Artemis I and II missions soon. A consistent cockpit experience and training from Orion to the AE makes the end-to-end mission safer for Artemis. The Transfer Element, a propulsive stage that starts the lander on its descent trajectory from lunar orbit, is based on Northrop Grumman's Cygnus vehicle that provides logistics resupply to the International Space Station; and Draper provides descent guidance and avionics to the National Team. It’s time to go back to the Moon – to stay. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3gcs1iP

We are proudly producing daily deliveries of 3D printed face shield components to help combat the COVID-19 crisis. Our additive machines are working 24/7, and the volunteers for this effort also support BE-4 engine development. We are grateful for their dedication.

Two BE-3U engines will power the upper stage of New Glenn. Fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen – these powerful engines are a variant of the BE-3PM flying today on New Shepard. Here’s a peek at how the test program is going in West Texas. https://www.blueorigin.com/engines/be-3