Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin delays NS-21 suborbital spaceflight
Amazon founder's aerospace company did not disclose a new launch date for its fifth crewed flight
FOX Business contributor Dan Henninger discusses the head of Russia’s space agency threatening Elon Musk over giving Ukrainians access to Starlink on ‘Fox Business Tonight.’
Blue Origin is delaying its fifth crewed suborbital spaceflight, NS-21, which was originally scheduled to lift off from Van Horn, Texas, on Friday morning.
"During our final vehicle check-outs, we observed one of New Shepard’s back-up systems was not meeting our expectations for performance," the company said in a statement.
The aerospace company did not disclose a new launch date.
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New Shepard carries crew members above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, where they experience several minutes of weightlessness before making their descent back to Earth.
NS-21 will fly six paying customers, including investor and NS-19 astronaut Evan Dick, electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta, business jet pilot and Action Aviation chairman Hamish Harding, civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha, adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson and explorer and co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo.
Echazarreta will become the first Mexican-born woman and youngest American woman to fly to space. She will be flying as part of Space for Humanity's sponsored Citizen Astronaut Program. Meanwhile, Victor Correa Hespanha will be the second Brazilian to fly to space. The 28-year-old's seat is sponsored by the Crypto Space Agency.
The NS-21 crew has already arrived at Blue Origin's Astronaut Village.
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In March, Blue Origin launched its fourth and most recent crewed flight, NS-20.
The crew of New Shepard NS-20. Pictured from left to right: Gary Lai, Jim Kitchen, Marty Allen, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, and Dr. George Nield. (Photo courtesy of Blue Origin) (Blue Origin)
The flight's crew included angel investor and former Party America CEO Marty Allen, SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle and her husband, Tricor International CEO Marc Hagle, teacher, entrepreneur and world explorer Jim Kitchen, former Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation associate administrator George Nield and New Shepard architect Gary Lai, who replaced Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson.