Blue Origin rocket to fly for first time since Bezos' trip to space
No microgravity joyrides this time around, except for a handful of NASA experiments and other small payloads.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Blue Origin's New Shepard thrusts its way skyward.
The follow-up to Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos' historic 10-minute trip to space will be a much more low-key affair.
The 17th flight of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket -- and the first since the July 20 crewed flight with Bezos; his brother Mark; aeronautics legend Wally Funk; and student Oliver Daemen -- will have no humans on board. Instead, the mission will carry 18 commercial payloads inside the capsule and a sensor mounted to the exterior will test a bit of lunar landing tech for NASA.
The exterior sensor is a deorbit, descent and landing sensor, which previously flew on a New Shepard mission last October. The second flight of the experiment will provide more data to inform upcoming missions to the moon.
The payloads inside the crew capsule include the first art installation to fly with Blue Origin: a series of three portraits by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo painted inside the crew capsule on its chute covers. Portraits of Boafo, his mother, and a friend's mother will make the trip to space as part of Uplift Aerospace's Uplift Art Program.
Boafo with his work, Suborbital Tryptych.
Other NASA-supported experiments aboard will test methods for measuring propellant levels in microgravity, cryogenic propellant storage and biological imaging above earth.
Liftoff is set for Thursday at 6:35 a.m. PT from the company's west Texas launch site. The 10-15 minute flight will be streamed via BlueOrigin.com, starting about 30 minutes before launch.
It's still unclear when the next crewed Blue Origin flight with paying customers will take place.
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