EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — American space technology company Blue Origin has successfully completed another mission, it said Tuesday, Feb. 4.
The company lauched its 29th successful New Shepard flight on Tuesday, Feb. 4 from its Launch One Site near Van Horn, Texas. It was also the company’s 14th mission with a payload.
The payloads experienced roughly two minutes of lunar gravity forces, Blue Origin said.
The New Shepard crew capsule used its reaction control system to spin up to approximately 11 revolutions per minute, simulating one-sixth Earth gravity at the midpoint of the crew capsule lockers, the company added.
The flight carried 30 payloads from NASA, research institutions, and commercial companies, bringing the number of payloads flown on New Shepard to more than 175.
Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit, flew thousands of postcards as part of its Postcards to Space program. Each postcard will be returned to its creator stamped “Flown to Space.” The club has a digital method to create and send postcards, which can be found here.
“New Shepard’s ability to provide a lunar gravity environment is an extremely unique and valuable capability as researchers set their sights on a return to the moon,” said Phil Joyce, senior vice president for the New Shepard Division. “This enables researchers to test lunar technologies at a fraction of the cost, rapidly iterate, and test again in a significantly compressed timeframe.”
The flight was launched at 9 a.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday and the mission lasted a little over 10 minutes.
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