An international crew of four men and two women blasted off and rocketed to the edge of space Saturday, enjoying a few minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this-world view before plunging back to Earth to wrap up Blue Origin’s twelfth New Shepard passenger flight.
“It was such an incredible ride, very moving, very spiritual,” Panamanian attorney Jaime Alemán, a former ambassador to the United States, said after landing. “Even better than I ever imagined. I’ve been traveling, thanks to the gods, all my life, this was like the cherry on top of a cake. I mean, to go up in space and see how huge it is, you can only begin to imagine how much more there is still to discover.”
he New Shepard rocket and crew capsule climb away from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site on the company’s 12th crewed sub-orbital space flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast
Blue Origin’s hydrogen-fueled single-stage booster roared to life at 9:39 a.m. EDT and quickly climbed away from the company’s West Texas launch site, accelerating to just over 2,000 mph before releasing the New Shepard spacecraft.
The crew capsule, equipped with the largest windows of any operational spaceship, continued coasting up to an altitude of nearly 65 miles, just above the internationally recognized boundary between the discernible atmosphere and space, before beginning the descent to landing.
At the moment the capsule was released, its three American passengers — Aymette Medina Jorge, Gretchen Green and Paul Jeris — along with Alemán, Canadian Jesse Williams and New Zealand’s Mark Rocket, began enjoying about three minutes of weightlessness as they coasted upwards.
The New Shepard single-stage rocket flew itself back to landing near its launch pad for refurbishment and work to ready the vehicle for its next flight. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast
The reusable New Shepard booster, meanwhile, also continued upward before slowing and beginning its on tail-first descent. Seven minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s BE-3 engine re-ignited, four landing legs deployed and the booster settled to a picture-perfect touchdown on a landing pad near the launch site.
The gumdrop-shaped New Shepard capsule took a more leisurely flight home, descending under three large parachutes to touchdown in the West Texas desert 10 minutes after liftoff.
“You guys, we did it!” one of the passengers exclaimed.
Passenger Gretchen Green celebrates her trip to space after touchdown in the West Texas desert. / Credit: Blue Origin webcast
Blue Origin has now launched 12 passenger flights since the sub-orbital spacecraft carried Amazon- and Blue Origin-founder Jeff Bezos and three others aloft in July 2021. The company has now launched 68 passengers, including four who have flown twice.
Blue Origin and its passengers do not reveal how much it costs to fly aboard a New Shepard, but it’s estimated to cost upwards of $500,000 per seat. Jorge’s seat was sponsored by Farmacias Similares, a Mexican company focused on accessible healthcare across Latin America. Her crewmates presumably paid for their own tickets.
Blue Origin has had the sub-orbital passenger market to itself since June 2024 when competitor Virgin Galactic, founded by entrepreneur Richard Branson, retired its original rocketplane to focus on building two upgraded Delta-class spacecraft. Virgin is expected to resume flights next year.
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