Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, has announced plans to launch a new rocket in 2020 called New Shepard. The rocket will be reusable and capable of carrying passengers on suborbital flights to the edge of space.
To learn more about the New Shepard Rocket from Blue Origin and how it’s changing the future of private space travel, read on for more details about its mission specs, design, and test flight schedule.
About the New Shepard
Last year, Jeff Bezos unveiled his new rocket. The New Shepard is Blue Origin’s next-generation launch vehicle that will take people into space for suborbital flight.
About Blue Origin
Blue Origin is a private aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. It was founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with its own funding in 2000.[4] The company is working on an orbital launch vehicle named New Glenn and a suborbital spacecraft named New Shepard.
Both are intended to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.[5][6] Development of both vehicles is underway; New Shepard has already made several successful test flights[7][8][9], while development of New Glenn began in 2017.[10] Both are scheduled to begin flying commercial payloads into orbit around 2020.
Why did they choose this rocket design?
It’s reusable, which means it can be used over and over again with minimal refurbishment between flights. This cuts down on launch costs substantially-the company says it costs less than $200,000 to launch its rocket compared to tens of millions for a traditional one. It also allows companies to quickly scale up their operations by making multiple launches per day possible (at least in theory).
Finally, using a reusable rocket design like Blue Origin’s helps reduce waste and environmental impact, as each new craft will cost far less than ones currently available. A commercial spaceflight startup called XCOR Aerospace plans to release another reusables-based rocket within two years as well; they say they'll eventually charge $9500 per kilogram transported into low-Earth orbit.
How will it work?
The new rocket is no mere upgrade or refit of existing launchers. With its hydrogen-fueled, methane-powered rocket engine, Blue Origin’s launcher will be able to carry passengers 62 miles above Earth into suborbital space-and then bring them back home again. Onboard, six crewmembers and a pilot can experience four minutes of weightlessness before reentering Earth’s atmosphere at supersonic speeds.
During reentry, special parachutes deploy in order to slow down the capsule; it finally lands via retrorockets, which also serve as landing legs for when it touches down in one piece at its destination on land. The process requires intensive training, but that didn’t stop anyone on Team Ars Technica from signing up. In fact, we all hope to go someday. We just need tickets first…
What's next?
On Nov. 23, 2018, Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company, Blue Origin, successfully launched and landed its New Shepard reusable rocket for the eighth time. The test flight took place at 11:21 a.m. EST (16:21 UTC) and was conducted at Van Horn, Texas - just south of El Paso in southernmost Texas.
This is not just another successful launch or landing; it represents an important step forward in Bezos’ plans to take tourists into suborbital space by 2019 - perhaps as early as next year. Here’s why New Shepard matters for both human history and human future.
