New Shepard
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American to travel into space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Additionally, it is also capable of carrying humans and customer payloads into a sub-orbital trajectory.
| Function | Launching tourists and cargo on a suborbital trajectory |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
| Country of origin | United States of America |
| Size | |
| Height | 18m (60ft) |
| Diameter | 3.7m (12.1ft) |
| Mass | 75t (officially) ~40t (estimated) |
| Stages | 1 |
| Launch history | |
| Status | Active |
| Launch sites | Launch Site One |
| Total launches | 24 |
| Success(es) | 23 |
| Failure(s) | 1 |
| Landings | 22 |
| First flight | 29 April 2015 |
| Last flight | 19 December 2023 |
| Single stage | |
| Powered by | 1 BE-3 |
| Maximum thrust | 490 kN (110,000 lbf) |
| Burn time | 141 seconds |
| Propellant | LH2 / LOX |
New Shepard consists of a booster rocket and a crew capsule. The capsule can be configured to house up to six passengers, cargo, or a combination of both. The booster rocket is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which sends the capsule above the Kármán line, where passengers and cargo can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth.
The launch vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, with the capsule returning to Earth via three parachutes and a solid rocket motor. The booster lands vertically on a landing pad 3.2 km north of the launch pad. The company has successfully launched and landed the New Shepard launch vehicle 22 times with 1 partial failure deemed successful and 1 failure. The launch vehicle has a length of 15.0 m, a diameter of 3.7 m and a launch mass of 75 T. The BE-3PM engine produces 490 kN of thrust at liftoff.