Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-28 Mission Successfully Launches with Diverse Crew

On Friday, November 22, 2024, Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket on the NS-28 mission from Launch Site One in West Texas. This marks the ninth human flight for the New Shepard program and the 28th overall launch in its history.

The crew for this mission includes a diverse group of individuals: Emily Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell, and Henry (Hank) Wolfond. Notably, Sharon and Marc Hagle, who are both philanthropists, are flying on New Shepard for the second time, having previously become the first married couple to launch on a commercial space vehicle in March 2022.

The New Shepard rocket, named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, is designed for suborbital flights. During the 11-minute journey, the crew soars past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing panoramic views of Earth. The vehicle is fully autonomous, with no pilots on board.

The New Shepard system features a pressurized crew capsule with large windows, ring and wedge fins for stabilization, drag brakes to reduce speed during descent, and a BE-3PM engine that propels the rocket to space and enables a controlled landing. The rocket’s aft fins stabilize the vehicle during ascent and guide it back to the landing pad on descent.

This successful launch continues Blue Origin’s mission to make space accessible to more people, having now flown 43 humans above the Kármán line since the program’s inception.