Blue Origin is set to initiate its first mission in over 15 months on the morning of December 18, and you can witness the event live.
The New Shepard suborbital vehicle by Blue Origin is scheduled to launch from the company’s West Texas site today, with the window opening at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT; 9:30 a.m. local Texas time). The launch time has been slightly delayed due to cold temperatures, according to the company.
Blue Origin
You can catch the live coverage via Blue Origin’s stream, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Space.com will broadcast the company’s feed if possible. Coverage is set to begin at 9:10 a.m. EST (1410 GMT).
New Shepard, a reusable rocket-capsule combination designed for suborbital space travel, has not been in action since September 12, 2022, when it encountered an anomaly during an uncrewed research flight. Despite the failure of the first-stage booster, the capsule safely landed under parachutes, and all 36 research payloads remained intact.
Following an investigation into the mishap, Blue Origin identified the cause as a “thermo-structural failure” of the nozzle on the engine powering New Shepard’s booster. Corrective measures have been implemented, and the company is now prepared for a new flight.
The upcoming mission, known as NS-24, is uncrewed, similar to the September 2022 flight. It will carry 33 research payloads, with over half of them “developed and flown with support from NASA,” according to Blue Origin. Other payloads originate from K-12 schools, universities, and STEAM-focused organizations (STEAM referring to “science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics”).
In addition to the scientific cargo, the flight will transport 38,000 postcards for Club for the Future, a nonprofit founded by Blue Origin with the goal of sparking interest in space science and exploration among young people.
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