Watch the Launch

Additional Media

New Shepard Mission NS-15 Webcast

Blue Origin’s NS-15 New Shepard flight is targeting liftoff Wednesday, April 14, from Launch Site One in West Texas. Building on the incremental mission succ...

NS-15 Mission to Conduct Astronaut Rehearsal for Future Customer Flights

As major progress is being made on the New Glenn launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral facilities, the schedule has...

NS-15

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Suborbital

Suborbital West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA
NS-4 - Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas

Fifteenth flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. During the mission, astronaut operational exercises will be conducted in preparation for human space flight. The primary operations will entail Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entering into the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts will climb the launch tower, get into their seats, buckle their harnesses, and conduct a communications check from their seat with CAPCOM, the Capsule Communicator. The tower operations team will prepare the capsule cabin for launch and then briefly close the capsule hatch. The astronauts will then exit the capsule prior to launch. Post-landing, the astronauts will get inside the capsule to rehearse hatch opening, and exiting the capsule at the landing site. Inside the capsule during the flight will be Mannequin Skywalker, along with more than 25,000 postcards on behalf of Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit organization

Updates

Nosu • April 14, 2021, 5 p.m.

Successful launch


Nosu • April 14, 2021, 2:46 p.m.

Now targeting 15:56 UTC


Nosu • April 13, 2021, 4:03 p.m.

Adjusting T-0


Nosu • April 12, 2021, 8:05 p.m.

Adjusting T-0 and setting GO


Nosu • April 11, 2021, 4:36 p.m.

Adding the launch


New Shepard

Family:
Configuration:

The New Shepard reusable launch system is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL), suborbital manned rocket that is being developed by Blue Origin as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    15.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.7 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    75.0 T
  • Thrust
    490.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    New Shepard
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    New Shepard
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


NS-4

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: January 14, 2021
Last Flight: August 29, 2024
Flights: 11
Landings Attempted: 11
Landings Successful: 11
Previous NS-4 Flights

Landing Information

NS4 has successfully landed at Corn Ranch Landing Pad after its second flight.

Result: Successful Return to Launch Site landing at Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas.

RSS First Step


Active Human Rated Crew On-board: 1 Crew Capacity: 6
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: 2.0-2

First Blue Origin New Shepard Crew Capsule 2.0 to carry human passengers. This capsule is outfitted with improvements to environmental features such as acoustics and temperature regulation inside the capsule, crew display panels, and speakers with a microphone and push-to-talk button at each seat.

Crew Capsule 2.0 Details

Crew


Mannequin Skywalker

Anthropomorphic Test Device - configurations.Country.None - ( BO )

Status: Active

Date of Birth: None
Age: None

Blue Origin

Blue Origin

(BO)

CEO: Jeff Bezos Founded: 2000 Successes: 26 Failures: 1 Pending: 6

Agency Type:

Blue Origin is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos with its headquarters in Kent, Washington. The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin currently launches its New Shepard sub-orbital vehicle from its West Texas launch site, they are currently constructing a launch pad for their orbital vehicle New Glenn at Cape Canaveral LC-36.

INFO WIKI

Related News

Spaceflight Now

Blue Origin practices crew operations on suborbital test flight

Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, took another step toward launching people to the edge of space Wednesday with a suborbital test flight of its New Shepard booster and crew capsule over West Texas. The compa…

SpaceNews

Blue Origin aces dress rehearsal for New Shepard crewed flights

Blue Origin completed another test flight of its New Shepard vehicle April 14, putting the company on the verge of finally flying people.

NASA Spaceflight

Blue Origin succeeds in 15th New Shepard flight, critical test before carrying humans

Blue Origin launched the 15th mission of their suborbital New Shepard launch system, including booster and capsule, on a test flight that will prove crucial to the company’s ability to begin carrying people. 

Spaceflight Now

Blue Origin to rehearse for human passengers on suborbital flight

Finally on the cusp of launching people to the edge of space, Blue Origin plans to use a suborbital test flight of its New Shepard booster and crew capsule Wednesday to rehearse boarding and recovery procedures for future missions with pay…

SpaceNews

Blue Origin to perform dress rehearsal for crewed New Shepard flights

A test flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle, scheduled for as soon as April 14, will be a dress rehearsal for long-awaited crewed flights.

Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch


Falcon 9
Success
5 hours, 3 minutes ago
Starlink Group 6-66
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
8 hours, 48 minutes ago
Progress MS-29 (90P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Starship
Success
1 day, 23 hours ago
Integrated Flight Test 6
Orbital Launch Mount A - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

Sixth test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 2 hours ago
GSAT-20 (GSAT-N2)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

GSAT-20 is an Indian geostationary Ka-band high-throughput communications satellite. GSAT 20 is reportedly built on the I-6K unified modular bus a…


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 15 hours ago
Starlink Group 9-12
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 22 hours ago
Optus-X/TD7
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

An unannounced geostationary communication satellite built by Northrop Grumman, alleged for the Australian telecommunications operator Optus. Details…


Long March 7
Success
6 days, 5 hours ago
Tianzhou-8
201 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Seventh cargo delivery mission to the Chinese space station.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 6-68
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
Starlink Group 9-11
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 4B
Success
1 week ago
Haiyang 4-01
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Next generation Chinese ocean salinity measurements satellite to study ocean climatic changes and its effects on ecology and biological cycles.