NS-24 Carries 33 Payloads to Space
NS-24 Carries 33 Payloads to Space
First Flight for the Blue Origin in 15 Months
The first New Shepard flight in 15 months was launched Tuesday morning, successfully carrying 33 payloads on a suborbital flight. It was the 24th Blue Origin New Shepard flight and 13th payload mission to be launched from Launch Site One in West Texas.
“Demand for New Shepard flights continues to grow and we’re looking forward to increasing our flight cadence in 2024.”
Phil Joyce, Blue origin
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 official launch time was 10:42:25 am CST. The booster reached an apogee of 347,208 ft. AGL / 350,855 ft. MSL, while the capsule flew to 347,601 ft. AGL / 351,248 ft. MSL.
The capsule landed at 10:52:41 am CST for an elapsed mission time of 10 minutes, 13 seconds.
“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.”
The flight was the first since the booster on an unmanned New Shepard flight suffered an anomaly on September 11th. The emergency escape system activated after the anomaly, and the capsule landed safely.