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Watch the Launch

Additional Media

NS-29

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Suborbital

Suborbital West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA
NS-5 - Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas

NS-29 will simulate the Moon’s gravity and fly 30 payloads, all but one of which is focused on testing lunar-related technologies. The payloads will experience at least two minutes of lunar gravity forces, a first for New Shepard and made possible in part through support from NASA. The flight will test six broad lunar technology areas: In-situ resource utilization, dust mitigation, advanced habitation systems, sensors and instrumentation, small spacecraft technologies, and entry descent and landing. Proving out these technologies at lower cost is another step toward Blue Origin’s mission to lower the cost of access to space for the benefit of Earth. It also enables NASA and other lunar surface technology providers to test innovations critical to achieving Artemis program goals and exploring the Moon’s surface. The New Shepard crew capsule is using its Reaction Control System (RCS) to spin up to approximately 11 revolutions per minute. This spin rate simulates one-sixth Earth gravity at the midpoint of the crew capsule lockers. In simulated lunar gravity, customers can accelerate their learning and technology readiness for lunar payloads at much lower cost.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 4, 2025, 4:13 p.m.

Mission complete.


Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 4, 2025, 4:01 p.m.

Liftoff.


LL2 • Feb. 4, 2025, 3:50 p.m.

Official Webcast by Blue Origin has started


Cosmic_Penguin • Feb. 3, 2025, 3:25 p.m.

GO for launch.


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 30, 2025, 9:36 a.m.

NET February 4.


New Shepard

Family:
Configuration:

The New Shepard reusable launch system is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL), suborbital manned rocket that is being developed by Blue Origin as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    15.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.7 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    75.0 T
  • Thrust
    490.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    New Shepard
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    New Shepard
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


NS-5

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: October 23, 2024
Last Flight: December 20, 2025
Flights: 6
Landings Attempted: 6
Landings Successful: 6
Previous NS-5 Flights

Landing Information

The New Shepard booster has landed back on the landing pad.

Result: Successful Return to Launch Site landing at Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas.

RSS H.G. Wells


Active Human Rated Unmanned Crew Capacity: 6
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: 2.0-1

Second New Shepard capsule. It is dedicated to uncrewed flights.

Crew Capsule 2.0 Details

Blue Origin

Blue Origin

(BO)

CEO: Jeff Bezos Founded: 2000 Successes: 39 Failures: 2 Pending: 6

Agency Type:

Blue Origin is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos with its headquarters in Kent, Washington. The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin currently launches its New Shepard sub-orbital vehicle from its West Texas launch site, they are currently constructing a launch pad for their orbital vehicle New Glenn at Cape Canaveral LC-36.

INFO WIKI
SpaceNews

Blue Origin launches New Shepard on lunar gravity suborbital flight

Blue Origin launched its New Shepard suborbital vehicle Feb. 4 on the company’s first attempt to simulate lunar gravity in flight. The post Blue Origin launches New Shepard on lunar gravity suborbital flight appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASASpaceflight

Launch Roundup: Electron, Soyuz set to fly; New Shepard to simulate lunar gravity

This week’s launch manifest is quite diverse, featuring the launches of four different rockets worldwide.… The post Launch Roundup: Electron, Soyuz set to fly; New Shepard to simulate lunar gravity appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

NASASpaceflight

Launch Roundup: New Shepard to simulate lunar gravity, India and Japan to launch navigation satellites.

This week’s schedule has a mix of orbital and suborbital missions launching from seven different… The post Launch Roundup: New Shepard to simulate lunar gravity, India and Japan to launch navigation satellites. appeared first on NASASpace…

SpaceNews

New Shepard flight to demonstrate lunar gravity

Blue Origin’s next suborbital spaceflight will be a long-awaited demonstration of New Shepard’s ability to generate lunar gravity rather than microgravity. The post New Shepard flight to demonstrate lunar gravity appeared first on SpaceNe…

Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch


Falcon 9
Success
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Starlink Group 15-27
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2D
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PIESAT-2 13-16
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Electron
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Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
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Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
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Kuaizhou 11
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Soyuz 2.1b
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3 days, 13 hours ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
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Gravity-1
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4 days, 5 hours ago
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9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …


Zhuque-2E Block 2
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4 days, 20 hours ago
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10 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with…