Blue Origin Resumes Space Tourism with NS-25, Carrying Six Passengers

May 19, 2024, 10:30 AM

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully resumed its space tourism program on May 19, 2024, after a nearly two-year hiatus following a midflight mishap in 2022. The New Shepard NS-25 mission launched from West Texas at 10:13am EDT, carrying six passengers, including Gopichand Thotakura, the first Indian space tourist, and Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The flight reached an apogee of 107.0 km MSL and lasted 9 minutes and 44 seconds, traveling more than 60 miles above the earth. Despite one of the three main parachutes being partially inflated, the mission marks Blue Origin's seventh human flight and aims to reignite competition in the space tourism market.