by Blue Origin will debut a new spacecraft on Monday (October 7), if all goes according to plan.
Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company plans to launch its unmanned NS-27 mission Monday morning, sending its New Shepard rocket-capsule combo on a short trip to suborbital space. According to Blue Origin, it will be the first mission for this specific vehicle.
The NS-27 will launch from the company’s West Texas location during a window that opens at 9 a.m. EDT (1 p.m. GMT; 8 a.m. local Texas time). You can watch the action live via Blue Origin and here on Space.com, if the company makes its feed available as expected. Coverage begins at 8:45 a.m. EDT (1245 GMT).
NS-27 marks the debut of the second New Shepard human-rated vehicle, which consists of a first stage known as Booster 5 and a crew capsule called RSS Kármán Line. (The Kármán line is the 100-kilometer-high boundary that many people consider the beginning of space.)
“The vehicle features technology upgrades to improve vehicle performance and reusability, an updated livery and accommodation for loads on the booster,” Blue Origin wrote in a statement today (Oct. 4).
No humans will go on the NS-27, but the mission will carry twelve research payloads, five of which are on the booster and seven in the capsule. This equipment includes new navigation systems developed for New Shepard and Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket, as well as two LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors designed to operate in the lunar environment, Blue Origin said.
As the name suggests, NS-27 will be the 27th New Shepard mission overall. Eight of the vehicle’s 26 flights to date have been crewed, sending up to six people at a time on short journeys to the final border.
These eight crewed flights all used the same New Shepard vehicle: the Booster 4/RSS First Step combination. This second human-rated spacecraft will enable “expanded flight capacity to better meet growing customer demand,” the company wrote in today’s statement.
