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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Blue Origin to Launch Private Spaceship Test Flights This Year

• http://www.space.com

Blue Origin, the secretive private spaceflight company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, will begin suborbital flight tests this year of an innovative new spaceship — a milestone made possible by the firm's rocket engine success.

Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson told reporters today (April 7) that the company will fly unmanned suborbital tests of its New Shepard spacecraft later in 2015. The shakedown cruises are aimed at testing the performance and reusability of the commercial launch system's BE-3 rocket engine, which Blue Origin has cleared for suborbital flight.

"We're not releasing a flight date yet, but it will be later this year," Meyerson said in a teleconference. "It's soon." [Blue Origin's Spaceship Tests in Photos]

A diagram of Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft for commercial spaceflight.

A diagram of Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft for commercial spaceflight.
Credit: Blue Origin

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The New Shepard spacecraft is designed to launch a crew capsule carrying at least three astronauts or passengers on suborbital flights that reach over 62 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude — the boundary of space, Meyerson said. A reusable booster powered by Blue Origin's BE-3 rocket engine will launch the spacecraft from the company's West Texas proving grounds, and then return to make a land-based landing.

Ultimately, Blue Origin aims to fly paying passengers and researchers on round trips to suborbital space, though Meyerson said manned flights on New Shepard are still several years away. First, the spacecraft and its BE-3 engine must pass a rigorous testing regime.

"They could go as quickly, in the early days, as on a monthly schedule — a month between tests," Meyerson said. "But we expect over the next couple of years to be flying regularly with the New Shepard vehicle."

To achieve a vertical launch and vertical landing for New Shepard, the BE-3 rocket engine is capable of throttling up to 110,000 pounds of thrust, as well as back down to 20,000 pounds of thrust, Meyerson said. The rocket engine is fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant and has passed 450 separate tests during its development.


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