Blue Origin is set to break its dry spell of crewed launches this weekend.
A crew of six will be aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket-capsule combo on the company's 25th overall launch and seventh space tourism mission, which will lift off from West Texas. The passengers on this flight, known as NS-25, were announced last month; they include retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Ed Dwight, who was selected as the nation's first Black astronaut candidate way back in 1961.
Blue Origin, run by billionaire Jeff Bezos, did not initially indicate a date for the NS-25 mission, but announced earlier this week that the launch is targeted for this Sunday (May 19) at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT; 8:30 a.m. local time in West Texas).
Blue Origin's last space tourism launch occurred in August 2022. That mission carried six passengers on a suborbital flight just like the one scheduled for this weekend and performed nominally, with both the New Shepard rocket and the crewed capsule landing safely.
However, the next New Shepard flight — an uncrewed research mission that launched in September 2022 — suffered an anomaly caused by a structural failure in the nozzle of the rocket's BE-3PM engine. The capsule for that launch managed to parachute safely back to the ground, but the New Shepard rocket exploded, leading Blue Origin to ground the vehicle as the company performed an investigation.
More than a year later, New Shepard was cleared for flight again, and launched another uncrewed payload on the NS-24 mission in December 2023. This weekend, the six passengers of NS-25 will be the first crew to launch on New Shepard since its accident almost two years ago.
Ed Dwight is a retired U.S. Air Force Captain. In 1961, he was recommended for training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) by President John F. Kennedy, according to Blue Origin's NS-25 mission page. Ultimately, however, NASA did not accept Dwight into the Astronaut corps. He entered civilian life in 1966, retiring from the military to eventually become a sculptor dedicated to memorials and public arts celebrating Black history across the United States and Canada. Dwight's seat aboard NS-25 was sponsored by the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Foundation and Space for Humanity, a nonprofit geared toward making space more accessible for all of humanity.
Mason Angel founded Industrious Ventures, a venture capital fund that supports companies playing a role in the "transformation of fundamental industries and processes," according to Industrious Ventures' website. His biography on Blue Origin's mission page states that Angel hopes his NS-25 mission will "inspire children and advance partnerships with nonprofits focused on STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] in early education." The dog in Angel's photo is named Leo, a nod to low-Earth orbit.
Sylvain Chiron may well be cheering his mission to space with a beer made by Brasserie du Mont Blanc, one of France's largest craft breweries. Chiron founded the brewery in 1999. The French entrepreneur's love of aerospace goes way back; he earned his pilot's license at 16 years old and spent summers in Florida honing those flight skills and watching space shuttle launches from the Space Coast. According to his Blue Origin bio, Chiron currently resides with his family in Savoy, France, where he focuses his efforts on children's education and nature preservation.
Ken Hess rose to the entrepreneurial top with his Family Tree Maker software, which he sold to Ancestry.com in 2003. With his success, Hess was able to found the children's STEM education nonprofit Science Buddies to improve science literacy in grades K-12. According to Blue Origin's website, Science Buddies has reached 250 million users.
Carol Schaller lives on a farm in Lumberville, Pennsylvania, with her husband, and when she isn't tending to her 100 chickens, she is busy on her mission to see the world. Schaller was informed by her doctor in 2017 that she would eventually go blind, and since that diagnosis has traveled to 25 different countries and the South Pole. Now, she will get to look at space with her own two eyes. "Seeing Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere in the blackness of space will fulfill a lifelong dream," Blue Origin wrote on its NS-25 mission page.
Gopi Thotakura is co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, an Atlanta-based global center for holistic health and wellness. Thotakura graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is a practiced pilot of several non-military aircraft, including gliders, seaplanes and hot air balloons. His Blue Origin biography also indicates that Thotakura has served as an international medical jet pilot.
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