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Blue Origin NS-25

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Blue Origin NS-25
Mission typeCrewed sub-orbital spaceflight
Mission duration9 minutes, 53 seconds
Apogee106 km (66 mi)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftRSS First Step
ManufacturerBlue Origin
Crew
Crew size6
Members
Start of mission
Launch date19 May 2024, 14:35:09 UTC
RocketNew Shepard (NS4)
Launch siteCorn Ranch, LS-1
ContractorBlue Origin
End of mission
Landing date19 May 2024, 14:45:02 UTC
Landing siteCorn Ranch

Blue Origin NS-25 mission patch

Blue Origin NS-25 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which was launched on 19 May 2024 using the New Shepard rocket.[1][2]

NS-25 was the first crewed New Shepard flight since NS-22 in August 2022. The New Shepard fleet was grounded following a September 2022 engine failure on an uncrewed mission. The vehicle resumed flight in December 2023.[3]

NS-25 carried a crew of six to a maximum altitude of around 106 km.[4] At T+03:12, the crew experienced weightlessness, and at T+03:31, the capsule passed the Kármán line.[5] The booster landed 7 minutes after launch, while the capsule, deploying only 2 of its 3 parachutes, touched down 10 minutes after liftoff. Launch commentators assured that the capsule is designed to land safely with only two parachutes.[6][7]

Crew

[edit]
Prime crew
Position Crew
Tourist United States Mason Angel
First spaceflight
Tourist France Sylvain Chiron
First spaceflight
Tourist United States Ed Dwight
First spaceflight
Tourist United States Kenneth Hess
First spaceflight
Tourist United States Carol Schaller
First spaceflight
Tourist India Gopichand Thotakura
First spaceflight

Ed Dwight is often cited as the first African-American astronaut candidate. He made it to the second round of a 1961 Air Force program from which NASA selected astronauts, but was not selected. When he eventually flew as a space tourist on the Blue Origin suborbital flight at age 90 years, 253 days, he became the oldest person to reach space.[8][9]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "New Shepard's 25th Mission Includes America's First Black Astronaut Candidate". Blue Origin. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  2. ^ Mike Wall (2024-04-04). "Blue Origin will launch Ed Dwight, the 1st-ever Black astronaut candidate, to space on next New Shepard rocket flight". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  3. ^ Foust, Jeff (2024-04-05). "Blue Origin to resume crewed New Shepard flights". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  4. ^ Foust, Jeff (May 19, 2024). "Blue Origin resumes crewed New Shepard suborbital flights".
  5. ^ "Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-25 Webcast". YouTube. 2024-05-19. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  6. ^ Wall, Mike (2024-05-19). "Blue Origin launches 1st crewed spaceflight since August 2022 (video)". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  7. ^ Davis, Wes (2024-05-19). "All the news about Blue Origin's first crewed flight since 2022". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  8. ^ We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program, Chapter 5, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, pp. 86-104
  9. ^ Blue Origin launches six tourists to the edge of space after nearly two-year hiatus, CNN, Deblina Chakraborty and Jackie Wattles, May 19, 2024