Blue Origin Completes 26th Mission to Space with Six Crew Onboard

Today, Blue Origin successfully completed its eighth human spaceflight and the 26th flight for the New Shepard program. Our astronaut crew included: Nicolina Elrick, Rob Ferl, Eugene Grin, Dr. Eiman Jahangir, Karsen Kitchen, and Ephraim Rabin. Including today’s crew, New Shepard has now flown 43 people into space.  

Karsen Kitchen made history as the youngest woman ever to cross the Kármán line. Rob Ferl became the first NASA-funded researcher to conduct an experiment as part of a commercial suborbital space crew. 

If you’re interested in flying on New Shepard as an astronaut or flying a payload on a future mission, visit BlueOrigin.com. You can also purchase commemorative merchandise from today’s mission at the Blue Origin Shop. 

In case you missed it, view a full replay of today’s flight below. 

NS-26 is “Go” for Launch

August 28, 2024

We're "Go" to proceed to launch tomorrow, August 29. The NS-26 launch window opens at 8:00 a.m. CDT / 13:00 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas with live coverage beginning on BlueOrigin.com 40 minutes before liftoff. 

New Shepard’s Crewed NS-26 Mission Targets Liftoff on August 29

August 23, 2024

Blue Origin announced today its eighth human flight, NS-26, will lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Thursday, August 29. The launch window opens at 8:00 AM CDT / 1300 UTC. The webcast on BlueOrigin.com will start at T-40 minutes. 

A few of the symbols embedded in the NS-26 patch include: 

• The green color and plants ascending in spiral lines represent the living organisms in Rob Ferl’s onboard experiment.  
• The spiral lines indicate the slight rotation of the crew capsule when it separates from the booster. The continuous loop also represents Ephraim Rabin’s career in supply chain.  
• The heart represents Dr. Eiman Jahangir’s career as a cardiologist; the spiral line toward space represents his lifelong passion for reaching toward the stars, and Eugene Grin’s passion for travel.  
• The children at the bottom represent Karsen Kitchen and Nicolina Elrick’s childhood dreams to go to space. They also represent Club for the Future’s mission to inspire and mobilize future generations to pursue STEAM careers. 

For more information on the crew, please see below.  

You can learn more about purchasing a seat on New Shepard here. 

Follow Blue Origin on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and YouTube, and sign up on BlueOrigin.com to stay current on all mission details. 

Blue Origin Announces Crew for New Shepard’s 26th Mission

July 24, 2024

Blue Origin today revealed the six-person crew flying on its NS-26 mission. The crew includes: Nicolina Elrick, Rob Ferl, Eugene Grin, Dr. Eiman Jahangir, Karsen Kitchen, and Ephraim Rabin. Karsen will become the youngest woman ever to cross the Kármán line. 

Ferl will be the first NASA-funded researcher to conduct an experiment as part of a commercial suborbital space crew. The experiment is designed to help scientists understand how plant genes react to the transition to and from microgravity. Ferl will activate a device called a Kennedy Space Center Fixation Tube, or KFT, to “fix” or take a snapshot of the gene activity of an Arabidopsis thaliana plant inside the tube so researchers can later study it in the lab. On the ground, co-investigator Anna-Lisa Paul will track Ferl’s actions and activate identical control KFTs at the same four times during the flight.  

This mission will be the eighth human flight for the New Shepard program and the 26th in its history. To date, the program has flown 37 humans above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Meet the Crew

Nicolina Elrick 

Nicolina is a philanthropist and entrepreneur whose career spans high fashion modeling to property development and founding multiple IT corporations in the 1990s. A graduate of CoachU and a vocal advocate for STEM education, she has dedicated her life to mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs. Her forthcoming biography, "Grit, Diamonds, Stars," delves into her journey, offering insights into overcoming hardship with grace and determination. Based in Singapore, Nicolina is a certified helicopter pilot and a spirited explorer with a love for cars, fine wine, and the occasional cigar.

Rob Ferl

Rob is a distinguished professor and director of the Astraeus Space Institute at the University of Florida. He has spent his career studying how living organisms respond to extreme conditions, especially microgravity. He and his colleagues have worked with NASA astronauts to conduct numerous experiments on the International Space Station that have shown that plants turn certain genes on and off in response to changes in gravity. They were also the first to prove that plants could grow in lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions. Ferl is also a national leader in space policy, having recently chaired a National Academies of Sciences committee on the direction of space biology research over the next decade. 

Rob received funding for this technology flight test through a NASA TechFlights grant by the agency’s Flight Opportunities program as well as from NASA’s Division of Biological and Physical Sciences. 

Eugene Grin

Eugene was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the United States in 1979, where he started his career in real estate and finance. His passions include meditation, travel, and adventure sports. He lives in upstate New York and has four children. 

Dr. Eiman Jahangir

Eiman is a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he treats patients with heart disease and educates future physicians. Outside of medicine, he has a passion for exploration, including a lifelong dream of going to space. Over the past two decades, Eiman has participated in analog astronaut missions and trained in various aspects of human spaceflight. This mission not only fulfills his dream but also represents his vision of making space accessible to everyone. 

Eiman's seat is sponsored by MoonDAO, an organization whose mission is to accelerate a multiplanetary future. 

Karsen Kitchen

Karsen is poised to make history as the youngest woman ever to cross the Kármán line. A senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Karsen is majoring in Communications and Astronomy. After graduation, she intends to pursue a career in the space industry. In 2024, she founded Orbitelle, an initiative to encourage women to pursue careers in the space industry. Karsen has researched radio astronomy at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia and worked at UNC's Morehead Planetarium. She’s also immersed herself in centrifugal force training, experienced weightlessness during a Zero-Gravity flight, and currently in training for her scuba diving license. 

Ephraim Rabin

Ephraim is an American-Israeli businessman, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Parchem Fine & Specialty Chemicals, a technology company revolutionizing supply chains for specialized raw materials and ingredients globally. Ephraim is a trustee and mentor at a variety of organizations and think tanks, as well as a race car driver, chef, and avid skier and adventurer. Ephraim and his family split their time between New York, Israel, and the Caribbean. 

The flight date will be announced soon. 

Follow Blue Origin on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and YouTube, and sign up on BlueOrigin.com to stay current on all mission details.