Today, the Blue Origin Corporation conducted another successful launch and landing of its new ship New Shepard. The launch took place in unmanned mode.
Blue Origin has once again proved the reliability of the new spacecraft by conducting another successful launch and landing. The launch took place at the Corn Ranch spaceport in Texas.
18 cargoes were placed on board. During the flight, which lasted about 10 minutes, various instruments were tested. They want to use them for future lunar missions of the US Space Agency. Among them was a lidar and a computer that is responsible for descending and landing on the lunar surface.
The spacecraft also served as a kind of canvas for an artist from Ghana named Amoako Boafo.
Today's launch was the first for New Shepard since July 20, when it first went on a trip with people on board. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, 82-year-old Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Damen took part in that mission.
Participants of the first manned flight of New Shepard
Image Source: Blue Origin
Damen went down in history as the youngest astronaut to have been in space, and Funk became the oldest. The woman broke John Glenn's record, which he set in 1998 at the age of 77, when he went into space aboard the shuttle Discovery.
The July New Shepard mission is also notable for the fact that it was the first manned space flight from the territory of Texas.
Blue Origin began developing the New Shepard system in 2006. The first start was held on April 29, 2015. Jeff Bezos ' company wanted to start selling tickets in 2019 with the launch of the first customers in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic got in the way of these plans.
Structurally, New Shepard is a capsule that launches vertically, using a reusable launch vehicle. Both the rocket and the capsule are reusable. The carrier sits down after the start, using its engine. The capsule lands with the help of parachutes.
Rocket and capsule
Image Source: Blue Origin
New Shepard is an important, but the only space project of Blue Origin. Now it is working on a more ambitious initiative aimed at creating a reusable heavy-class rocket New Glenn.
It is assumed that it will be able to compete not only with existing carriers, but also with the Starship currently being developed-potentially the most revolutionary space system in the world.
Its first demonstration orbital flight may take place soon: SpaceX recently docked two parts of the system, thus creating the largest rocket of all.
