VAN HORN, Tx. – Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin completed a crewed launch of its reusable New Shepard rocket Sunday morning in Texas.
The NS-25 mission took off around 10:36 a.m., only about a hour later than originally planned at Launch Site One, north of Van Horn. NS-25 marks the company’s 25th flight using the launch vehicle and its seventh with humans on board.
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The previous New Shepard flight with humans on board launched in August 2022, carrying a crew of six that included Steve Young, owner of Pineapples in Eau Gallie.
Come Sept. 2022, an uncrewed New Shepard mission carrying dozens of small research projects into space, including one from a Kissimmee school, experienced an “anomaly.” The launch vehicle’s systems triggered an abort upon detecting the anomaly and jettisoned the capsule away from the booster, leaving the capsule to parachute to the ground as the propulsion module fell away. New Shepard was grounded as the Federal Aviation Administration investigated, issuing a final report a year later stating the mishap was handled as intended and otherwise ordering Blue Origin to make corrective actions, which included redesigning engine parts. Cleared for flight once again, New Shepard in December 2023 completed its uncrewed NS-24 mission, the last Blue Origin launch leading up to Sunday’s endeavor.
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Blue Origin in April announced the following six-person crew for NS-25:
- Retired Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight
- Selected in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to be America’s first Black astronaut candidate, yet was never granted an opportunity to visit space.
- Mason Angel
- Co-founder of Industrious Ventures, billed as a venture capital fund supporting early-stage companies that enable or progress new industrial revolutions.
- Sylvain Chiron
- Founder of Brasserie du Mont-Blanc, a large craft brewery in the French Alps, and noted as a lifelong aviator and skier.
- Kenneth L. Hess
- Software engineer and entrepreneur responsible for Family Tree Maker, a genealogy software company that was acquired by Ancestry.com in 2003. Hess founded a K-12 nonprofit called Science Buddies that seeks to ”level the playing field and improve STEM literacy by inspiring students through free, personalized, hands-on projects in all areas of science, including space exploration.”
- Carol Shaller
- A retired CPA who traveled the world after a doctor told her in 2017 that she would likely go blind. She now seeks to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing the Earth from above.
- Gopi Thotakura
- Pilot, aviator and co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a Georgia-based “global center for holistic wellness and applied health.”
Watch the launch again in the video player below:
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