Blue Origin Successfully Completes 24th Mission to Space

Blue Origin successfully completed its 24th New Shepard flight and 13th payload mission today from Launch Site One in West Texas.

The flight carried 33 payloads from NASA, academia, research institutions, and commercial companies, bringing the number of payloads flown on New Shepard to more than 150. Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit, flew 38,000 postcards as part of its Postcards to Space program. Each postcard will be returned to its creator stamped “Flown to Space.” The Club recently added a digital method to create and send postcards, which can be found here.

Key mission statistics:

• Official Launch Time: 10:42:28 AM CST / 16:42:28 UTC

• Booster Apogee: 347,208 ft. AGL / 350,855 ft. MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL)

• Crew Capsule Apogee: 347,601 ft. AGL / 351,248 ft. MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL)

• Crew Capsule Landing Time: 10:52:41 AM CST / 16:52:41 UTC  

• Mission Elapsed Time: 10 min 13 sec

“A special thank you to all of our customers who flew important science today and the students who contributed postcards to advance our future of living and working in space for the benefit of Earth,” said Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President, New Shepard. “Demand for New Shepard flights continues to grow and we’re looking forward to increasing our flight cadence in 2024.”

If you’re interested in purchasing an astronaut seat on New Shepard, please visit here. For payload inquiries, please visit here.

A full replay of today’s flight is available below. 

December 18

3:55 PM CST / 21:55 UTC

Our next #NS24 launch window opens tomorrow, Dec. 19, at 10:37 AM CST / 16:37 UTC. Webcast starts T-20 minutes to launch on BlueOrigin.com.

9:30 AM CST / 15:30 UTC

We're scrubbing #NS24 today due to a ground system issue the team is troubleshooting. We’ll provide a new launch target for this week soon.

8:00 AM CST / 14:00 UTC

Current T-0 time is no earlier than 09:30 CST / 15:30 UTC due to cold temperatures at Launch Site One. Webcast starts T-20 minutes to launch on BlueOrigin.com.

New Shepard’s 24th Mission Will Carry 33 Science Payloads to Space

December 16

New Shepard will fly its 24th mission on Monday, December 18. The manifest includes 33 payloads and 38,000 Club for the Future postcards from students around the world.

The NS-24 launch window opens at 8:30 AM CST / 14:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. The webcast starts at T-20 minutes on BlueOrigin.com. 

This mission will bring the number of payloads flown to space on New Shepard to more than 150. More than half of the payloads on this flight are developed and flown with support from NASA. Others come from K-12 schools, universities, and STEAM-focused organizations. 

This is New Shepard’s 24th flight and 13th payload mission. The program has also completed six astronaut missions and flown 31 humans above the Kármán line. From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes. New Shepard’s engine is fueled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During flight, the only byproduct is water vapor with no carbon emissions.

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