Kent-based Blue Origin’s 27th mission to space on Wednesday, Oct. 23 debuted the second human-rated vehicle for the New Shepard program, enabling the company to expand flight capacity to better meet growing customer demand.
“We look forward to welcoming crew onboard RSS Kármán Line soon and offering the New Shepard flight experience to people across the world from all backgrounds,” said Phil Joyce, senior vice president, New Shepard, in a company email. “On every New Shepard mission, we’ve witnessed people return to Earth changed by this experience, and with a renewed sense of commitment to preserve our planet.”
The flight, from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site, carried no people but had five payloads on the booster and seven inside the crew capsule, including tens of thousands of postcards flying as part of Club for the Future’s Postcards to Space program. Each postcard will be returned to its creator stamped “Flown to Space.”
Blue Origin completed its eighth human spaceflight and the 26th flight for the New Shepard program on Aug. 29. The company charges people to be part of the crew, but does not reveal prices for the 10-minute flight into space. Some crew members are sponsored by others.
Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, opened in 2000 in Kent. The company has not announced a date for its next flight.
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