REYKJAVÍK, Iceland — Blue Origin sent six people to space on a suborbital spaceflight May 31 that the company’s chief executive says is both a good business and a way to test technology.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:39 a.m. Eastern. The capsule, after reaching an apogee of 105 kilometers, landed 10 minutes later, a few minutes after the booster.
The NS-32 mission, on what has become a standard flight for the company, carried six people:
Aymette (Amy) Medina Jorge, a teacher from Texas whose flight was sponsored by Mexican healthcare company Farmacias Similares;
Gretchen Green, a doctor and entrepreneur;
Jaime Alemán, a Panamanian lawyer who once served as that country’s ambassador to the United States;
Jesse Williams, a Canadian entrepreneur and adventurer;
Mark Rocket, a New Zealand businessman who was an early investor in and, for a time, co-director of Rocket Lab; and
Paul Jeris, a real estate developer.
This was the 12th crewed flight of New Shepard and the vehicle has now carried 64 people, four of whom have flown more than once. With this flight, Rocket became the first person from New Zealand to go to space and Alemán the first Panamanian.
This was the fourth New Shepard flight so far this year, three of which carried people and the fourth a payload-only flight that simulated lunar gravity. The company has not disclosed the number of flights the company is planning this year.
Speaking at the Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit by Explore Mars May 28, Dave Limp, chief executive of Blue Origin, reiterated that the company remains committed to New Shepard even as it flies its New Glenn launch vehicle and works on the Blue Moon lander and other capabilities.
Limp, echoing comments he gave at the Commercial Space Conference in February, said that New Shepard both stands on its own as a service and also gives the company the ability to test technologies for other programs.
“First of all, it’s a good business,” he said. “There is an insatiable demand out there for human beings who grew up thinking about space and want to get to space, but it’s still very hard to do right now.” He did not disclose details about how good the business is, and the company has traditionally been reticent to disclose pricing or related information.
Even if those missions were not a good business opportunity, he added, “we would still fly New Shepard because it’s such a good testbed.” He cited as one example flight-testing avionics on New Shepard for use on New Glenn, as well as testing the lidar that is part of the landing system of the company’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander, set to make its first flight later this year.
