Blue Origin NS-25

Blue Origin NS-25 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which was launched on May 19, 2024, using the New Shepard rocket.^[2][3]

Blue Origin NS-25

Mission type	Sub-orbital human spaceflight
Mission duration	9 minutes, 53 seconds
Apogee	107 km (66 mi)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	RSS First Step
Manufacturer	Blue Origin
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Mason Angel Sylvain Chiron Ed Dwight Kenneth Hess Carol Schaller Gopichand Thotakura
Start of mission
Launch date	May 19, 2024, 9:35:09 am CDT (14:35:09 UTC)[1]
Rocket	New Shepard (NS4)
Launch site	Corn Ranch, LS-1
Contractor	Blue Origin
End of mission
Landing date	May 19, 2024, 9:45:02 am CDT (14:45:02 UTC)[1]
Landing site	Corn Ranch
Blue Origin NS-25 mission patch New Shepard flights ← Blue Origin NS-24 Blue Origin NS-26 →

NS-25 was the first New Shepard flight to carry humans since NS-22 in August 2022. The New Shepard fleet was grounded following a September 2022 engine failure on a cargo mission. The vehicle resumed flight in December 2023.^[4]

NS-25 carried six passengers to a maximum altitude of 107 km (66 mi).^[1] At T+03:12, the passengers experienced weightlessness, and at T+03:31, the capsule passed the Kármán line.^[5] The booster landed seven minutes after launch, while the capsule, deploying only two of its three parachutes, touched down ten minutes after liftoff. Launch commentators assured that the capsule is designed to land safely with only two parachutes.^[6][7]

Passengers

Position	Passenger
Tourist	Mason Angel First spaceflight
Tourist	Sylvain Chiron First spaceflight
Tourist	Ed Dwight First spaceflight
Tourist	Kenneth Hess First spaceflight
Tourist	Carol Schaller First spaceflight
Tourist	Gopichand Thotakura First spaceflight

Ed Dwight is often cited as the first African-American astronaut candidate. He made it to the second round of a 1961 Air Force program from which NASA selected astronauts, but was not selected. When he eventually flew as a space tourist on the Blue Origin suborbital flight at age 90 years, 253 days, he became the oldest person to reach space.^[8][9]