Blue Origin launches 35th New Shepard flight after long delay

Blue Origin launched its 35th New Shepard suborbital mission this morning (Sept. 18) after a nearly four-week delay.

The uncrewed flight, known as NS-35, lifted off today from Blue Origin‘s West Texas site at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT; 8:01 a.m. local Texas time).

Instead of a crew, the Blue Origin capsule carried more than 40 scientific payloads on its suborbital flight, including 24 payloads from the NASA TechRise Student Challenge, which empowers teams of 6th-12th graders to design, build and launch experiments on NASA supported test flights.

New Shepard consists of a first-stage rocket and a capsule, both of which are reusable. Flights of the vehicle get above the Kármán Line — the widely recognized boundary where space begins, at 62 miles up (100 kilometers) — and last 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown.

After a successful launch, the New Shepard booster descended for a safe landing 2 miles downrange of the launch pad about 7.5 minutes after liftoff. The capsule descended under parachutes for a touchdown at T+10:15.

NS-35 was originally supposed to fly on Aug. 23, but Blue Origin stood down from that attempt to work an issue with the booster’s avionics. The company tried again on Aug. 26 but scrubbed for the same reason. Today’s attempt will be the first since then.

More than 40 scientific payloads will take flight on NS-35, bringing the total number of payloads lofted by New Shepard to date over 200, according to the company.

“The payload manifest includes 24 experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, along with thousands of postcards on behalf of Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s STEAM-focused nonprofit,” Blue Origin wrote in an NS-35 mission description. (STEAM stands for “science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.”)

New Shepard also conducts crewed flights; indeed, 14 of its 34 missions to date have carried people to the final frontier.

The most recent such jaunt, NS-34, launched crypto billionaire Justin Sun and five other people from West Texas on Aug. 3. Blue Origin has also flown a number of celebrities, including singer Katy Perry and “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.