Kent-based Blue Origin completed its 29th New Shepard rocket flight and 14th payload mission from Launch Site One in West Texas.
The payloads on the unmanned flight Feb. 4 experienced roughly two minutes of lunar gravity forces, according to a Blue Origin email. The New Shepard crew capsule used its reaction control system to spin up to approximately 11 revolutions per minute, simulating one-sixth Earth gravity at the midpoint of the crew capsule lockers.
The flight carried 30 payloads from NASA, research institutions, and commercial companies, bringing the number of payloads flown on New Shepard to more than 175. Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit, flew thousands of postcards as part of its Postcards to Space program. Each postcard will be returned to its creator stamped “Flown to Space.” The Club has a digital method to create and send postcards.
“New Shepard’s ability to provide a lunar gravity environment is an extremely unique and valuable capability as researchers set their sights on a return to the moon,” said Phil Joyce, New Shepard senior vice president. “This enables researchers to test lunar technologies at a fraction of the cost, rapidly iterate, and test again in a significantly compressed timeframe.”
The misson had an elapsed time of 10 minutes, 6 seconds.
Blue Origin successfully completed its ninth human spaceflight and the 28th flight for the New Shepard program on Nov. 22, 2024. The flight lasts about 10 minutes traveling approximately 62 miles into space and reaching speeds of up t0 2,238 mph.
The company’s unmanned New Glenn rocket safely reached its intended orbit during its first launch on Jan. 16 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, opened in Kent in 2000.
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