Blue Origin launches their Second Crewed Mission

Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin launched their second crewed New Shephard flight from West Texas. This follows NS-16, which launched Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen to space. This flight broke four Guinness World Records:

- First Siblings to Fly to Space, Jeff and Mark Bezos

- Oldest Person to fly to space, Wally Funk

- Youngest Person to fly to space, Oliver Daemen

New Shephard can also fly customer payloads. NASA flew a lunar landing precision experiment on NS-17. Hundreds of postcards from kids around the world are also flown on each New Shephard flight.

Though the capsule can take up to six astronauts, NS-18 will take four astronauts, like NS-16. The crew is:

Chris Boshuizen: Co-founder of Planet Labs and former NASA engineer

Glen De Vries: Co-founder of Medidata

William Shatner: He played Captain James T. Kirk in the popular television show, Star Trek and seven of the Star Trek movies. He also directed one of the movies. He will be the oldest person to fly to space, beating Wally Funk. William now is the host of History Channel's "The UnXplained".

“I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle.”

Audrey Powers: She joined Blue Origin in 2013 and foresees all New Shephard mission operations. She also played an important role in certifying New Shephard for human flight. Prior to serving at Blue Origin, Audrey was a flight controller at Mission Control for the International Space Station program.

“I’m so proud and humbled to fly on behalf of Team Blue, and I’m excited to continue writing Blue’s human spaceflight history, I was part of the amazing effort we assembled for New Shepard’s Human Flight Certification Review, a years-long initiative completed in July 2021. As an engineer and lawyer with more than two decades of experience in the aerospace industry, I have great confidence in our New Shepard team and the vehicle we’ve developed.”

Blue Origin launched NS-18 on Wednesday, October 13 at 9:49am CDT. The crew began training on Sunday, October 10, the same day the Flight Readiness Review was completed. Blue Origin was originally targeting October 12 for launch, but the window was moved on October 13 during the FRR because of high winds at Launch Site One. If you have any questions about the mission ask us on Twitter (@FutureAstroSite) or on our forum. You can also learn more about New Shephard at https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/ .

You can watch a replay of the mission here.