Tag: New Shepard

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Blue Origin might delay flying people until 2020

Blue Origin capsule
A mockup of the crew capsule for Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship is laid out at the Aria Resort Hotel in Las Vegas for the re:MARS conference in June. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is laying plans for two more uncrewed tests of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, but may have to delay its plans to put people on board until next year, CNBC reported.

The potential for shifting the start of test flights with people came up on Sept. 24 when Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith met with reporters in Washington, D.C.

Blue Origin, which is headquartered in Kent, Wash., has filed plans with the Federal Communications Commission for at least two more New Shepard test flights from its test and launch facility in West Texas. These would be the 12th and 13th flights of the New Shepard test program.

On Sept. 24, Blue Origin sought reauthorization of the next test flight for a six-month period running from Nov. 1 to next May. The existing authorization is set to expire on Dec. 1, which suggests that the company wants to reserve more time to prepare for the test.

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Blue Origin zeroes in on flying people to space

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith shows a video of a BE-4 rocket engine firing during the Aerospace Futures Alliance Summit in October 2018. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith has told Axios that just a few test flights remain before the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos starts putting people on its New Shepard suborbital spaceship.

“We’re still focused on getting the vehicle ready to go fly humans on it, and we’re still pushing to get that done by the end of the year,” Smith was quoted as saying in today’s report.

The first riders are likely to be test subjects selected from Blue Origin’s staff — potentially including former NASA astronauts.

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These student art projects will be out of this world

OK Go with winners
Members of the OK Go performance-art band (at left) give the good word to one of the winning teams (shown on the screen at right) in the Art in Space contest. (OK Go via YouTube)

Three students are getting ready for a space experiment that will use gravity and magnetism to simulate the origin of planet Earth. Another trio plans to create a musical composition that’s based on blips of cosmic radiation.

We’re not talking about strictly scientific experiments here: These are the winning entries in an art contest set up by the performance-art rock band OK Go to fly on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship.

The Art in Space contest follows up on OK Go’s viral “Upside Down & Inside Out” video, which splashed paint all over the interior of an airplane during a zero-gravity parabolic airplane flight.

OK Go Sandbox, the nonprofit venture established by the group in league with the University of St. Thomas’ Playful Learning Lab, struck a deal with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture to let kids do something similarly creative during the weightless phase of New Shepard’s flight.

Unlike OK Go, the winners of the contest won’t be floating in zero-G. The experiments are designed to do their thing autonomously, under controlled conditions, without splattering stuff on New Shepard’s nice new upholstery.

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Racer and rocketeer shows off space capsule

Blue Origin capsule
A mockup of the crew capsule for Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship is laid out beneath the sparkling lights of the Aria Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

LAS VEGAS — One of the big attractions at this week’s Amazon re:MARS conference is a mockup of the crew capsule for Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship — but chances are that few of the attendees lining up to try out the seats know who their tour guide is.

And that’s just fine with Jimmy Shane, who’s an engineer and manager at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space venture as well as a prize-winning hydroplane driver for the U-1 Miss HomeStreet team.

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Blue Origin sends dozens of payloads to space

Blue Origin launch
An overhead view shows Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship lifting off in West Texas. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, today sent dozens of science experiments and other payloads to space and back on its suborbital New Shepard rocket ship.

Today’s liftoff marked the 11th uncrewed test mission in the New Shepard program, and the fifth go-round for this particular reusable booster and its capsule.

The main mission was to check out the launch system in preparation for flying people later this year, but Blue Origin said it flew 38 commercial payloads in the crew capsule — including a 3-D printer and a scientific centrifuge designed for use in zero-gravity.

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Blue Origin set to launch science extravaganza

Blue Origin landing
Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster lands itself at the end of a test flight in July 2018. (Blue Origin Photo)

Blue Origin, the private space venture founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, says it’s sending up its New Shepard suborbital spaceship on its next test flight as early as May 2 with 38 payloads on board.

The launch and landing at Blue Origin’s spaceport in West Texas are due to be webcast via the company’s website and NASA TV, with liftoff set for 8:30 a.m. CT (6:30 a.m. PT).

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OK Go and Blue Origin team up on art contest

OK Go in zero-G
OK Go’s zero-gravity art contest follows up on a music video that the group performed during a zero-gravity airplane flight. (OK Go Photo)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is joining forces with the music-video masters at OK Go to give students a chance to send art experiments into outer space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship.

The “Art in Space” contest follows up on OK Go’s viral “Upside Down & Inside Out” video, which splashed paint all over the interior of an airplane during a zero-gravity parabolic airplane flight.

“Now we want you to try, but in actual space!” the music group says in today’s contest announcement.

Winners won’t be able to get quite as wild and crazy as OK Go did: Their experiments will have to be confined inside a 4-by-4-by-8-inch box that would be packed aboard an upcoming New Shepard test flight in West Texas. They can weigh no more than 1.1 pounds, and explosives are frowned upon.

Despite the limitations, teams will have wide leeway to design a payload that produces art in microgravity.

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Blue Origin sends NASA-backed payloads to space

New Shepard launch
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship lifts off from its West Texas launch site. (Blue Origin via YouTube)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture sent eight NASA-sponsored scientific payloads to the edge of space and back on its New Shepard suborbital spaceship, marking another step toward putting people on board.

The rocket lifted off into clear, chilly skies from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas at 9:08 a.m. CT (7:08 a.m. PT). Minutes after launch, New Shepard’s gumdrop-shaped capsule separated from the hydrogen-fueled booster and headed to a maximum unofficial altitude of 350,775 feet (66 miles or 107 kilometers). That’s well above the 100-kilometer Karman Line that currently serves as the internationally accepted boundary of space.

The reusable booster maneuvered itself back to a landing on a pad not far from where it was launched, while the capsule deployed its parachutes and drifted back down to the desert terrain.

“Welcome home, New Shepard. Wow!” launch commentator Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin’s head of astronaut strategy and sales, said during today’s webcast.

In a follow-up tweet, Blue Origin said the 10-minute, 15-second mission “looks to have been a wholly successful flight.”

“A perfect day,” Bezos said in an Instagram posting:

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After delays, Blue Origin is ‘go’ for liftoff

Blue Origin New Shepard
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship sits on its West Texas launch pad in preparation for a launch in July 2018. (Blue Origin Photo)

Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, says it’s scheduling the next uncrewed test flight of its New Shepard suborbital space ship for Jan. 23. Liftoff had been postponed several times, due to technical concerns as well as worries about high winds at the West Texas launch site.

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Blue Origin plans to launch NASA science payloads

Blue Origin New Shepard
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship sits on its West Texas launch pad in preparation for a launch in July 2018. (Blue Origin Photo)

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it plans to send nine NASA-sponsored payloads to space and back on the 10th uncrewed test flight of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship.

Liftoff was originally set for 8:30 a.m. CT (6:30 a.m. PT) Dec. 18 from Blue Origin’s suborbital launch complex in West Texas.

Update for 5:47 a.m. PT Dec. 20: After working through a ground infrastructure issue, Blue Origin has decided to put off the next launch of its New Shepard suborbital spaceship until early 2019.

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