New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism and research, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. It first flew uncrewed in April 2015 and carried its first crew, including Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, in July 2021, crossing the Karman line on a flight of about ten minutes before both the booster and capsule landed separately for reuse.
Facts
Spacecraft TypeSuborbital reusable launch vehicle 2 Manufacturer StatusLaunches paused for at least two years as of a January 30, 2026 Blue Origin announcement, to prioritize the Blue Moon lunar lander program. 2 Status
Status (category) Connections
Operated By
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Additional Source New Shepard (Wikipedia)New Shepard article, overview
In the Other Atlases
Manufactured By
Also in Business Atlas: the manufacturer of this subject.
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Astronautica: New Shepard
Encyclopedia AstronauticaHeader: StatusQuote, Header: Status
Status : Operational 2006.
2. Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia Foundation- Spacecraft Type: Suborbital reusable launch vehicle
- Launch Date: 2015-04-29
- Manufacturer: Blue Origin
- Status: Launches paused for at least two years as of a January 30, 2026 Blue Origin announcement, to prioritize the Blue Moon lunar lander program.
New Shepard (Wikipedia)
New Shepard article, overview
a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin
New Shepard article, current status section
paused for at least two years
Lead section
At the time of the program being paused in 2026, there were four new propulsion modules under construction (NS6, NS7, NS8, and NS9), three of which were expected to fly in 2026. ==== New Shepard 1 ==== The first flight of the full-scale New Shepard vehicle was NS1, also called "Tail 1" and was conducted on April 29, 2015, during which an altitude of 93.5 km (58.1 mi) was attained.
- In Group: Reusable Crewed Suborbital Vehicles, lead sentence: fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin
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