New Shepard. New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American to travel into space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Additionally, it is also capable of carrying humans and customer payloads into a sub-orbital trajectory.  

New Shepard consists of a launch rocket and a crew capsule. The capsule can be configured to house up to six passengers, cargo, or a combination of both. The launch rocket is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which sends the capsule above the Kármán line, where passengers and cargo can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth.

The launch vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, with the capsule returning to Earth via three parachutes and a solid rocket motor. The rocket lands vertically on a landing pad 3.2km north of the launch pad. The company has successfully launched and landed the New Shepard launch vehicle 26 times with 1 partial failure deemed successful and 1 failure. The launch vehicle has a length of , a diameter of  and a launch mass of . The BE-3PM engine produces  of thrust at liftoff.

History 

The first development vehicle of the New Shepard development program was a sub-scale demonstration vehicle named Goddard that was built in 2006 following earlier engine development efforts by Blue Origin. Goddard was assembled at the Blue Origin facility in Kent, Washington, United States and made its first flight on 13 November 2006. A second test flight was scheduled for 2 December, but never took place.

According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, two further flights were performed by Goddard. Blue Engine 1, or BE-1, was the first rocket engine developed by Blue Origin and was used in the company's Goddard development vehicle. On the path to developing the New Shepard launch vehicle, a crew capsule was also needed, and design was begun on a space capsule in the early 2000s. One development milestone along the way became public. On 19 October 2012, Blue Origin conducted a successful pad escape of a full-scale suborbital crew capsule at its West Texas launch site. For the test, the capsule fired its pusher escape motor and launched from a launch vehicle simulator. The Crew Capsule traveled to an altitude of  under active thrust vector control before descending safely by parachute to a soft landing  downrange.

In April 2015, Blue Origin announced that they had completed acceptance testing of the BE-3PM engine that would power the New Shepard launch vehicle. The company also announced that they intended to begin flight testing of the New Shepard later in 2015, with initial flights occurring as frequently as monthly, with "a series of dozens of flights over the extent of the sub-orbital test program [taking] a couple of years to complete". The same month, the FAA announced that the regulatory paperwork for the test program had already been filed and approved, and test flights were expected to begin before mid-May 2015. By February 2016, three New Shepard vehicles had been built. The first was lost in a test in April 2015, the second had flown twice (see below), and the third was completing manufacture at the Blue Origin factory in Kent, Washington, United States. In 2016, the Blue Origin team were awarded the Collier Trophy for demonstrating rocket reusability with the New Shepard human spaceflight vehicle.

On 20 July 2021, the company successfully completed its first crewed mission, Blue Origin NS-16, into space using its New Shepard launch vehicle, carrying passengers Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen. The flight was approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Kármán line. New Shepard performed six crewed flights between July 2021 and August 2022, taking a mix of sponsored celebrities such as Wally Funk, William Shatner as well as paying customers. New Shepard ticket sales brought in $50 million through June 2022. The second and third crewed missions of New Shepard took place in October and December 2021. The fourth crewed flight happened in March 2022. On 4 June 2022, New Shepard completed its fifth crewed mission launch and the sixth crewed flight took place on 4 August 2022. In September 2022, an uncrewed mission of the New Shepard had an anomaly due to a failure of the BE-3PM main engine. The launch escape system triggered and the capsule landed safely. The remaining New Shepard launch vehicles were grounded pending an FAA investigation into the incident. After a six-month investigation, Blue Origin pinpointed the cause of the anomaly as a thermal-structure failure of the BE-3PM engine nozzle caused a thrust misalignment that triggered the capsule's emergency escape system to activate. Blue Origin said in its press release that New Shepard flights would resume as soon as possible.

The return to flight mission happened on 19 December 2023.

On January 28, 2025, an uncrewed New Shepard rocket was scheduled to launch. The mission, NS-29, is intended to launch about 30 moon-related technologies.

New Shepard vehicles

New Shepard propulsion modules 
, there have been five propulsion modules built. They are NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4, and NS5.

New Shepard 1 
The first flight of the full-scale New Shepard vehicle was NS1, also called "Tail 1" and was conducted on 29 April 2015 during which an altitude of  was attained. While the test flight itself was deemed a success, and the capsule was successfully recovered via parachute landing, the rocket crash landed and was not recovered due to a failure of hydraulic pressure in the vehicle control system during descent. The capsule was called RSS Jules Verne.

New Shepard 2 
The New Shepard 2 (NS2), also called "Tail 2", flight test article propulsion module made five successful flights in 2015 and 2016, being retired after its fifth flight in October 2016.

New Shepard 3 
New Shepard 3 (NS3), also called "Tail 3", along with capsule RSS H. G. Wells, was modified for increased reusability and improved thermal protection; it included a redesigned propulsion module and the inclusion of new access panels for more rapid servicing and improved thermal protection. NS3 was the third propulsion module built. It was completed and shipped to the launch site by September 2017, although parts of it had been built as early as March 2016. Flight tests began in 2017 and continued into 2019. The new Crew Capsule 2.0, featuring windows, was integrated to the NS3. NS3 was only ever be used to fly cargo; no passengers were carried (as was originally planned for NS3).

Its initial flight test occurred on 12 December 2017. This was the first flight flown under the regulatory regime of a launch license granted by the FAA. Previous test flights had flown under an experimental permit, which did not allow Blue Origin to carry cargo for which it was paid for commercially. This made the flight of NS3 the first revenue flight for payloads, and it carried 12 experiments on the flight, as well as a test dummy given the moniker "Mannequin Skywalker."

Since the maiden flight, "Blue Origin has been making updates to the vehicle ... intended primarily to improve operability rather than performance or reliability. Those upgrades took longer than expected" leading to a several-month gap in test flights. The second test flight took place on 29 April 2018. The 10th overall New Shepard flight, and the fourth NS3 flight, had originally been planned for December 2018, but was delayed due to "ground infrastructure issues." Following a diagnostics of the initial issue, Blue Origin rescheduled the launch for early 2019, after discovering "additional systems" that needed repairs as well. The flight launched on 23 January 2019 and successfully flew to space with a maximum altitude of . It has been used to test SPLICE ("Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution"), a NASA lunar landing technology demonstration, on two separate flights in October 2020 (NS-13) and August 2021 (NS-17).

New Shepard 3 rocket was destroyed during the NS-23 mission once it impacted the ground on 12 September 2022 after a rocket engine anomaly led to the activation of the in-flight abort system. The capsule made a successful landing under parachutes. This was the ninth flight of NS3, and the flight was not carrying any people on board.

New Shepard 4 
New Shepard 4 (NS4), also called "Tail 4", which flies with capsule RSS First Step, was the fourth propulsion module to be built and the first to carry human passengers. Bezos himself was a passenger. The vehicle was manufactured in 2018 and moved to the Blue Origin West Texas launch facility in December 2019. The uncrewed maiden launch of NS4 occurred on 14 January 2021. NS4 was successfully launched on 20 July 2021, with four passengers; Jeff Bezos was aboard this maiden crewed flight. On 13 October 2021, NS4 successfully launched and landed, carrying four passengers, including notable passenger William Shatner. On 11 December 2021, Blue Origin NS-19 successfully launched into space. This was the first time New Shepard carried six passengers, the full design passenger complement. In October 2024, National Air and Space Museum announced that Blue Origin had donated NS4 to be displayed in the museum.

New Shepard 5 
New Shepard 5 (NS5), which flies with capsule RSS Kármán Line, is Blue Origin's second crew-rated propulsion module. Manufactured to meet growing demand for New Shepard flights, it debuted on the NS-27 uncrewed flight, which flew on 23 October 2024 following aborted launch attempts on 7 October 2024 and 13 October 2024.

New Shepard capsules 
, four New Shepard capsules have been constructed. They are , , , and .

Crewed flights 
 Blue Origin commenced the first flight carrying passengers on the 16th flight of New Shepard (NS-16) on 20 July 2021. One commercial seat was auctioned on 12 June 2021 for $28 million, with the proceeds going to Blue Origin's foundation Club for the Future, which promotes STEM careers. Due to scheduling problems, the auction winner did not participate in the flight and was rescheduled for a later flight. The passengers aboard were Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen. At 82, Funk was the oldest, and at 18, Daemen was the youngest person to travel into space. Daemen's seat was paid for by his father Joes Daemen, who secured the seat as the second-highest bidder after the original auction winner withdrew, making Oliver Daemen the first commercial passenger (i.e. passenger whose flight was paid for from outside the Blue Origin company (and not by Jeff Bezos)) of New Shepard. On December 22, 2021, the $28 million mystery auction winner was revealed to be Justin Sun, a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur. Sun's bid was donated to Club for the Future, which distributed most funds to other space-related nonprofit organizations. Sun arranged with Blue Origin to purchase a dedicated New Shepard flight in late 2022, where he would choose five passengers to accompany him. As of August 2024 and after 8 crewed flights, Sun has not gone to space.
 The second crewed flight, NS-18, took place on 13 October 2021, carrying four passengers, two of whom were paying passengers. The flight included William Shatner who flew as a guest of Blue Origin (i.e., he did not pay for his flight).
 The third crewed flight, NS-19, successfully launched into space on 11 December 2021. The ship's passengers included NFL legend and television personality Michael Strahan and Alan Shepard's daughter Laura Shepard Churchley as "guests" of Blue Origin (i.e., they did not pay for their flights), and four other people who were paying passengers.
 The fourth crewed flight, NS-20, flew successfully on 31 March 2022. Onboard was Gary Lai, a Blue Origin employee and five paying passengers. This was the first flight with no celebrity passengers.
 The fifth crewed flight, NS-21, flew successfully on 4 June 2022. Onboard was educational YouTuber Katya Echazarreta, whose flight had been partly sponsored by Blue Origin, and partly by other sources, and five other paying passengers (it could be that it has been mistakenly claimed that Echazarreta's flight was sponsored by Blue Origin and instead it was fully sponsored by Space for Humanity, a nonprofit organization). Also onboard was Blue Origin's first repeat customer for New Shepard launches, Evan Dick.
 The sixth crewed flight, NS-22, took place 4 August 2022. Among the passengers was Coby Cotton, one of the founders of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect. His flight was paid for by the organization MoonDAO, which works in cryptocurrency to "decentralize access to space", and bought two seats from Blue Origin. One of the seats was used by Cotton and one to be used in the future by Kejun Yan (in the NS-26 mission Eiman Jahangir's flight was sponsored by MoonDAO). It was reported that MoonDAO had paid about $2.5 million for the two seats on Blue Origin flights, or $1.25 million per seat. This is the first public figure available for the price to ride a Blue Origin rocket to suborbital space (not counting the $28 million winning bid in the auction for a seat on the first flight). However, Blue Origin tailors the price individually to each passenger, so it is hard to define the "ticket price" for New Shepard. This was the first flight (it may have been that the previous flight Blue Origin NS-21 on 4 June 2022 was actually the first such flight, if Katya Echazarreta's flight was not sponsored by Blue Origin, see above) where all six passengers were paying passengers (i.e., their flights were financed by other entities than Blue Origin).
 The seventh crewed flight, NS-25, flew successfully on 19 May 2024, 2 years after the in-flight abort of uncrewed mission NS-23. Onboard were six passengers, including Ed Dwight, the first African-American astronaut candidate who was controversially not selected to join NASA in 1961. Eventually, on NS-25, he became the oldest man to reach space.
 The eighth crewed flight, NS-26, flew successfully on 29 August 2024. The flight's crew included NASA-funded scientist Rob Ferl. During the flight he performed scientific experiments. Ferl was the first NASA-funded researcher flying aboard New Shepard (or indeed aboard any of the commercial suborbital space vehicles of the 21st century). His flight and experiments were funded by NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

As of June 2022, the company has generated more than $100M from the New Shepard space tourism program. In 2025, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe will be the first black woman to fly with Blue Origin on the New Shepard rocket.

Flight list

Design 

New Shepard is a fully reusable, vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) space vehicle composed of two principal parts: a pressurized crew capsule and a launch rocket that Blue Origin often calls a booster or propulsion module. The New Shepard is controlled entirely by on-board computers, without ground control or a human pilot.

Launch rocket 
The launch rocket is powered by one BE-3PM engine with thrust vector control, fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Aft fins stabilize the rocket during ascent, steer it back to the landing pad during descent, and guide it effectively at speeds up to Mach 3. Ring and wedge fins near the top of the rocket provide aerodynamic stability and reduce fuel consumption during descent. Drag brakes are also deployed during descent to increase drag and reduce speed. The gimbaling engine nozzle and aft fins work together to steer the rocket, both using hydraulic actuators.

Crew capsule 
The New Shepard crew capsule is a pressurized crew capsule designed to carry up to six people. It supports a "full-envelope" launch escape system that can separate the capsule from the launch rocket at any point during ascent. The Crew Capsule Escape Solid Rocket Motor (CCE-SRM) is sourced from Aerojet Rocketdyne. The interior volume of the capsule is , containing 6 windows, 6 reclined seats, and handholds for ease of movement in zero-g. At the center of the capsule is a cylinder housing the crew escape system. After separation from the launch rocket, three parachutes deploy for a soft landing. In the event of a parachute failure, the capsule can still land safely with one of three parachutes deployed. Before touchdown, a retro-thrust system at the bottom of the capsule expels nitrogen gas to slow the landing to approximately 3.2 km/h (2 mph). Additionally, a crushable ring, 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) high, compresses upon impact on the underside of the capsule and acts as a decelerator to absorb g-forces.

Flight profile 
New Shepard is launched  north of Van Horn, Texas, at Launch Site One (LS1), and conducts a powered flight for about 110 seconds, up to an altitude of .

The rocket and capsule then continue coasting upwards due to their momentum, reaching an apogee just above the Kármán Line at . Near this peak altitude, the crew capsule separates from the rocket. As the rocket nears the ground, its air brakes deploy and the engines restart as onboard computers autonomously bring the rocket for a vertical landing at the landing pad, where it deploys its four landing legs. The crew capsule descends afterward under three parachutes and a solid rocket motor. The crew capsule can also separate in case of a vehicle malfunction or other emergency using solid propellant separation boosters, then perform a parachute landing. The total flight duration of the rocket is over 7 minutes, while the total flight time for the crew capsule is around 10 minutes.

NASA suborbital research payloads

NASA Suborbital Research Payloads 
"New Shepard offers flights to space over 100 kilometers for payloads inside our cabin or with direct exposure to the space environment. With minutes of high-quality microgravity or partial-G, access to the Kármán Line, and gentle return of payload, New Shepard is transforming access to space research."

, Blue Origin had submitted the New Shepard reusable launch vehicle for use as an uncrewed rocket for NASA's suborbital reusable launch vehicle (sRLV) solicitation under NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. Blue Origin projects  altitude in flights of approximately ten minutes duration, while carrying an  research payload. By March 2016, Blue Origin noted that they are "due to start flying unaccompanied scientific payloads later [in 2016]." On 29 April 2018, during its eighth flight New Shepard carried the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x, a three-pound device developed by Solstar that launched the first commercial Wi-Fi hotspot service in space and sent the first commercial Twitter message from space. NASA provided a part of the $2 million project's funding as a part of its Flight Opportunities program.

On 12 September 2022,18 NASA payloads were flying on NS-23 when an in-flight failure of the rocket's main engine caused an emergency ejection of the payload capsule. The payload capsule landed safely and was recovered whilst the rocket was lost.

Involvement with NASA Commercial Crew Development Program 
Blue Origin received US$3.7 million in Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 1 to advance several development objectives of its innovative "pusher" Launch Abort System (LAS) and composite pressure vessel.

In February 2011, with the end of the second ground test nearly complete, the company completed all work envisioned under the phase 1 contract for the pusher escape system. They also "completed work on the other aspect of its award, risk reduction work on a composite pressure vessel" for the vehicle.

References

External links 

  
 Blue's Rocket Clues (MSNBC's Cosmic Log, 24 June 2006)
 Future & Fantasy Spaceships Primed for Launch Commercial, Orbital Spacecraft (see p. 8)
 Latest Blue Origin news on the Space Fellowship
 Secretive Spaceship Builder's Plans Hinted at in NASA Agreement Commercial Crew Development Blue Origin (2 new craft images)

Videos
 Images and videos at Blue Origin
 New Shepard space vehicle first successful soft landing, 23 November 2015 (YouTube)

Blue Origin launch vehicles
Space tourism
Private spaceflight
Reusable launch systems
VTVL rockets
Suborbital spaceflight
Vehicles introduced in 2015
Alan Shepard