What To Know About Blue Origin's New Shepard Launch

Amazon.com AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos' private spaceflight company Blue Origin is scheduled to launch experiments into space on its reusable New Shepard spacecraft on Wednesday after a weather delay that scrubbed a Tuesday liftoff.

What To Know About The Mission

The New Shepard will carry Blue Origin's 100th commercial payload to space, launching from its liftoff site near Van Horn, Texas. It's the ninth commercial payload launch for the New Shepard reusable spacecraft system, but the sixth for this particular vehicle.

We are scrubbing today’s #NewShepard launch due to weather conditions. Our next launch attempt will be tomorrow morning, Wed. Dec. 11. Awaiting target launch time from the mission team, updates to come. #NS12

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) December 10, 2019

Among the payload on the mission is an experimental program designed by Columbia University students to study the effects of microgravity environments on cell biology.

The ship will also carry a science program called OSCAR, a waste recycling technology experiment. The experiment is designed to create a mix of gasses from common waste on a human space mission that could be used for propulsion or life support.

The spacecraft will also carry thousands of postcards written by kids as part of Blue Origin's Club for the Future program. Also on board are two student art projects that won a contest called Art In Space.

What To Know About the New Shepard Spacecraft

The New Shepard was built with space tourism in mind, designed to take passengers into space - out past the so-called Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. 

The spacecraft, named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, has a 530-cubic-foot capsule. This gives people on board 10 times the room Shepard had on his Mercury flight.

The vehicle launches and lands vertically. Both the capsule and the rocket that propels it are reusable.

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Photo courtesy of Blue Origin.