Weeks after launching six people on a brief touring flight to space, Blue Origin is gearing up for its next launch on Aug. 31. However, this time there will be no humans on the ship. The Jeff Bezos-led company will launch 36 scientific payloads into low earth orbit that will study not only what happens in space but also the effects of the space environment on rockets.
New Shepard’s 23rd mission will begin from Launch Site One in West Texas. A successful flight would bring the total number of commercial payloads flown on the vehicle to over 150. This will be the fourth flight for the New Shepard program this year, the first dedicated payload flight since the NS-17 in August 2021, and the ninth flight. This time flying for the vehicle being used.
While two payloads aboard New Shepard will fly on the exterior of the New Shepard booster for exposure to the space environment’s surroundings, 18 others are funded by NASA under the Flight Opportunity Program. Meanwhile, the 24 payloads are from K-12 schools, universities, and STEM-focused organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR), and the SHAD Canada STEM Foundation.
Blue Origin launched its third tourist flight of the year on August 2. (Photo: Blue Origin)
“This is twice the number of education-focused payloads from the previous payload flight manifest. In many cases, these payloads expose students as early as elementary school to STEM skills such as coding, environmental testing, and CAD design that often don’t reach college.” taught,” Beau Genesis said in a statement.
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What is Blue Origin Launching?
The payload being launched into space by Blue Origin is the Infinity Fuel Cell’s AMPES experiment that demonstrates the operation of hydrogen fuel cell technology in microgravity. The aim of the experiment is to develop a scalable, modular and flexible power and energy product. ASSET-1, designed by Honeybee Robotics, is also going into space and will study the strength of a planetary soil called regolith under different gravity conditions.
Meanwhile, CFOSS, a space-rated Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS) technology, measures temperature and stress data to accelerate the technology’s level of readiness prior to launch to low-Earth orbit. Blue Origin said it is also launching ENGARTBOX with New Shepard, which integrates engineering, science and art by striving to address the engineering and scientific challenges of painting in non-gravitational environments.
Blue Origin launched Dude Perfect cofounder Coby Cotton, British-American climber Vanessa O’Brien, technology leader Clint Kelly III and telecommunications executive Steve Young, Egyptian mechanical and biomedical engineers Sarah Sebri and Mario Ferreira on August 2 for the third of the year. Started tourism flight. , a Portuguese entrepreneur, investor, and chairman of Pluris Investments Group in the space.
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