Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin set to launch its new Shephard (NS-17) spacecraft

Jeff Bezos space company Blue Origin is all set to launch its new Shephard (NS-17) spacecraft. Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, is on a quest to allow a future in which millions of people live and work in space to benefit Earth. The space travel company is preparing to launch the New Shepard (NS) spacecraft from West Texas today. According to the company, the spacecraft will carry a NASA lunar landing technology demonstration on the outside of the rocket, as well as commercial and NASA-supported payloads within the crew capsule.

The New Shepard spacecraft flew Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, Wally Funk, and a fourth passenger into space in July. Across 11 missions, the spacecraft has delivered more than 100 payloads to orbit. New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall, completely autonomous rocket-and-capsule combination that cannot be controlled from within the ship. The event will be broadcast live on the company’s website.

The NS-17 will not carry people, but it will transport 18 commercial payloads, including 11 NASA-sponsored payloads, as well as thousands of postcards written by children through Blue Origin’s charity Club for the Future.

The outside of the capsule is made up of NASA’s Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration experiment, which is meant to assist spacecraft land more precisely on the moon and other celestial planets. The New Shepard took to the skies for the first time in October 2020.

With the vision of enabling a future in which millions of people live and work in space to benefit Earth, Blue Origin believes that we must protect the planet by moving heavy industries that stress our planet into space, while also allowing humanity to access space to expand, explore, and find new energy and material resources. Then we may see a vibrant and prosperous future for our grandchildren’s grandkids. There is no backup plan for Earth.

Blue is working on this right now by building operationally reusable launch vehicles that are safe, dependable, and widely available. Every launch vehicle is built from the start for human spaceflight and is capable of transporting payloads into space.