posted 07-17-2018 08:49 AM               

Ready for lift off! New Shepard is gearing up for its ninth mission. We'll be doing a high altitude escape motor test – pushing the rocket to its limits. Launch is tomorrow [July 18]. Details on live webcast to come.

posted 07-17-2018 04:57 PM               

Payload Manifest on Mission 9

An awesome feature of New Shepard is its modular interior design. While in the future it will feature six seats to fly people, we're already flying science and education experiments for microgravity research.

On Mission 9, we welcome our third round of payload customers from commercial companies, universities and space agencies. They will share the cabin with Blue Origin's Mannequin Skywalker for their flight to space.

Below is a selection of customers slated to fly on Mission 9:

• Schmitt Space Communicator Xperimental (SC1-x)
  Solstar (Santa Fe, NM), developed with private funding and with support from NASA's Flight Opportunities Program

  On New Shepard Mission 8, Solstar demonstrated the first commercial WiFi in space. On this reflight, they will take advantage of the Crew Capsule's high altitude escape and continue testing WiFi access throughout the flight.

• GAGa (Granular Anisotropic Gases)
  Otto-von-Guericke University (Magdeburg, Germany) with end-to-end service provider OLYMPIASPACE
  (Darmstadt, Germany) and funding from German space agency, DLR

  The GAGa payload investigates the statistics of granular gases, dilute collections of solid grains that interact by random collisions. Data from GAGa on New Shepard Mission 9 will help validate existing theoretical models and contribute to understanding the dynamics of related systems like avalanches and cosmic dust clouds.

• Suborbital Flight Experiment Monitor-2 (SFEM-2)
  NASA Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX)

  SFEM-2 was first flown on Mission 8 of New Shepard, and will collect additional data on Mission 9. The experiment will record vehicle conditions including cabin pressure, temperature, CO2, acoustic conditions, and acceleration.

• Condensed Droplet Experiment for NASA in Sub-Orbital Spaceflight (ConDENSS)
  Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), funded through NASA Flight Opportunities Program

  ConDENSS will examine the behavior of small droplets of water in order to support the development of small and efficient heat transfer systems for spaceflight. These systems, called phase change heat transfer systems, provide more uniform surface temperatures and higher power capacities.

• APL Electromagnetic Field Experiment
  Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, funded through NASA Flight Opportunities Program

  This experiment marks the first flight of the JANUS 2.1 platform with sensors to monitor magnetic fields and ambient pressure inside the vehicle. Previous versions of JANUS were flown on New Shepard Missions 6 and 7.

• Vibration Isolation Platform Data Logger
  Controlled Dynamics, funded through NASA Flight Opportunities Program

  VIP DL is a technology demo for an active stabilization platform that aims to allow the most sensitive payloads flying on New Shepard to be isolated from ambient vibrations, allowing for even higher precision microgravity studies.

• mu Space-1
  mu Space Corporation (Bangkok, Thailand)

  The first of Blue Origin's New Glenn customers to purchase a slot on New Shepard, mu Space's payload includes an assortment of scientific and medical items, several textile materials they plan to use on their future space suit and apparel, and other special articles for their community partners.

• Blue Origin "Fly My Stuff"
  A special addition to the Mission 9 payload manifest is a suite of payloads from Blue Origin employees as a part of our internal "Fly My Stuff" program.

posted 07-17-2018 04:59 PM               

Launch tomorrow slated for 9:00 am CT/14:00 UTC. Live webcast begins at T-20 minutes on BlueOrigin.com.

posted 07-18-2018 07:10 AM               

It's launch day! New Shepard is looking good on the pad after rollout this morning. T-2 hours to launch. Lift off time 9:00 am CT/14:00 UTC. Live webcast starts T-20 on blueorigin.com.

posted 07-18-2018 08:40 AM               

Mission 9 launch target now 10:00 am CT/15:00 UTC.

posted 07-18-2018 09:22 AM               

On Mission 9, we're firing the crew capsule escape motor at the highest altitude ever. We are stressing the rocket to test that astronauts can get away from an anomaly at any time during flight.

posted 07-18-2018 10:28 AM               

• Mission launch time: 10:11 a.m. CDT
  
• Max ascent velocity: 2,236 mph
  
• Crew capsule apogee: 389,846 feet (119 km)
  
• Mission elapsed time: 11 minutes, 17 seconds

posted 07-18-2018 05:09 PM               

Latest Blue Origin Launch Tests Technologies of Interest to Space Exploration

Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket on July 18 from the company's West Texas launch site with five NASA-supported technologies onboard. The flight helped researchers collect critical data to help them confirm theories, refine previous results and fine-tune experiments for future testing.

Selected for flight test by NASA's Flight Opportunities, many of the payloads on this New Shepard flight aim to provide value to other payloads on future flights.

A sensor package developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will help measure critical data such as acceleration, pressure, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels and acoustic levels within a suborbital vehicle in flight. SFEM-2 stands for Suborbital Flight Experiment Monitor-2. It was flown once before on Blue Origin in April 2018.

"We modified the acceleration measurement range, allowing us to capture higher g levels from the flight," said Johnson's Kathryn Hurlbert, principal. "This, combined with the data from the first flight, should provide an extensive set of parameters of the test environment."

Some of the payloads flying on this Blue Origin flight also aim to provide value to other researchers. For example, the company Solstar sent the world's first commercial tweet from space on the Blue Origin flight in April. This time, the company continued work toward increasing the robustness of WIFI in space with an antenna designed to withstand the rigors of a rocket demonstration.

Through the program, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) selects promising technologies from industry, academia and government for testing. The Flight Opportunities program has helped to test and mature 136 technologies through 162 suborbital flights. The program is funded by STMD and managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

"NASA needs technologies that enable space exploration," said Ryan Dibley, NASA FO campaign manager. "The Flight Opportunities program funds the flights on commercial suborbital vehicles to test these technologies in a relevant environment, enabling researchers to validate their technology, as well as fostering the public and private relationships that grow this nation's economy."

posted 07-18-2018 06:04 PM               

Blue Origin Mission 9: Safe Escape In Any Phase of Flight

New Shepard flew for the ninth time on July 18, 2018. During this mission, known as Mission 9 (M9), the escape motor was fired shortly after booster separation. The Crew Capsule was pushed hard by the escape test and we stressed the rocket to test that astronauts can get away from an anomaly at any time during flight. The mission was a success for both the booster and capsule. Most importantly, astronauts would have had an exhilarating ride and safe landing.

Above: New Shepard Crew Capsule, July 18, 2018, during descent on Mission 9.

This isn’t the first time we’ve done this type of extreme testing on New Shepard. In October of 2012, we simulated a booster failure on the launch pad and had a successful escape. Then in October of 2016, we simulated a booster failure in-flight at Max Q, which is the most physically strenuous point in the flight for the rocket, and had a completely successful escape of the capsule.

This test on M9 allowed us to finally characterize escape motor performance in the near-vacuum of space and guarantee that we can safely return our astronauts in any phase of flight.

Also on M9, New Shepard carried science and research payloads from commercial companies, universities and space agencies.