Blue original Aiming to end a more than 15-month pause in operations for its New Shepard suborbital rocket, the company announced today that it will fly an unmanned mission as early as December 18.
The company confirmed the launch on its website Social media account after Bloomberg report From an internal email on the new target date. The mission, called NS-24, will carry 33 scientific, research and other cargo payloads.
New Shepard has been grounded since September 2022, when an engine nozzle problem triggered an automatic shutdown, freeing the unmanned capsule from the booster. The capsule landed safely. The booster was destroyed when it hit the ground. (That mission was also unmanned.)
The FAA formally ended its investigation into the accident in September, ordering Blue Origin to implement 21 corrective actions, including redesigning engine and nozzle components as well as “regulatory changes.”
The new launch date means that Blue Origin has implemented all procedures and received the revised launch authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to the regulator’s website, the revised license will expire in August 2025 and will be limited to launches from Blue Origin facilities in West Texas only.
While Blue Origin has several ambitious projects in development — including a heavy rocket called New Glenn, which the company aims to launch late next year, and a lunar lander called Blue Moon, which has requested a $3.4 billion contract from NASA – The new project Shepard Flight Program is the only one currently operating. So far, the vehicle has flown more than 22 times, taking 31 people to the edge of space and back (including CEO Jeff Bezos himself).