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UPDATE 2: Blue Origin’s NS-24 mission rises to success

Blue Origin has successfully completed the firm’s 24th New Shepard flight and 13th payload mission 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.”

To purchase an astronaut seat on New Shepard, please access this direct infolink…. For payload inquiries, please visit this direct infolink.

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

UPDATE 1…

UPDATE: The NS-24 launch webcast for December 18th is changing. We’ll provide a new launch target for this week soon. Follow our blog and social media channels for the latest. See the blog entry below

Mission NS-24 Updates

December 18 – 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.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard 24th mission is set for Monday, December 18th

New Shepard will carry 33 science payloads to space. This 24th flight and 13th payload mission for Blue Origin will fly on Monday, December 18th. The manifest includes the aforementioned number of 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 and the webcast starts at T-20 minutes at 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.

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.