science

The mission, known as NS-25, sent six people on a brief trip to suborbital space today (May 19).

Blue Origin's nearly two-year human spaceflight drought is over.

Jeff Bezos' aerospace company launched its NS-25 mission today (May 19), sending six people — including the United States' first-ever Black astronaut candidate — on a brief trip to suborbital space aboard its New Shepard rocket-capsule combo.

It was Blue Origin's first space tourism launch since August 2022. That previous mission went well, but the company's next flight, an uncrewed research jaunt that launched a month later, did not: New Shepard suffered a serious anomaly, causing the destruction of the first-stage booster. (The capsule landed safely under parachutes.)  

New Shepard was grounded for more than a year while Blue Origin investigated the September 2022 accident, which the company eventually traced to a thermo-structural failure in the nozzle of the rocket's single engine. The vehicle returned to action this past December on an uncrewed flight and is now fully back, with another human mission under its belt.