New Shepard | NS-27
Blue Origin are launching an uncrewed suborbital mission to verify its second human-rated New Shepard capsule.
Blue Origin’s next New Shepard flight, NS-27, will debut blue second human-rated vehicle, enabling expanded flight capacity to better meet growing customer demand.
The launch window open at 07:30 AM CDT / 12:30 UTC Oct, 13 from Launch Site One in West Texas.
The new crew capsule is named RSS Kármán Line. The vehicle features technology upgrades to improve the vehicle’s performance and reusability, an updated livery, and accommodations for payloads on the booster. New Shepard remains one of the most sustainable rockets ever to fly to space. Nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.
NS-27 will fly 12 payloads—five on the booster and seven inside the crew capsule. Payloads include new navigation systems developed for New Shepard and New Glenn; two different LIDAR sensors for the Lunar Permanence program; ultra-wideband proximity operations sensors flying as part of a NASA TechFlights grant with Blue Origin’s Space Systems Development group; and a commercial payload that is a reproduction of black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The monoliths are flying on behalf of Spacemanic for a special edition printed by Croatian publisher Amaranthine Books.
The mission will also carry tens of thousands of student-designed postcards on behalf of Blue Origin Club for the Future program.