Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket Set for Return to Action Next Week

The space tourism firm could fly a cargo mission as soon as Monday as it seeks to get back into the commercial space race.

Jack Daleo

Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 03:22 PM ET

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Blue Origin’s New Shepard lifts off for the NS-22 mission on August 4, 2022. [Courtesy: Blue Origin]

Key Takeaways:

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket is set to resume flights on December 18 with a payload mission, after being grounded for over a year due to a faulty engine nozzle during an uncrewed launch mishap in September 2022.
The FAA concluded its investigation into the incident, requiring Blue Origin to implement several corrective actions before clearing it for launch.
During Blue Origin's grounding, rival Virgin Galactic has reportedly taken the lead in commercial space tourism, conducting its first commercial spaceflight in June and flying passengers monthly since.
Despite the hiatus, Blue Origin has a history of flying paying customers and is actively developing other major projects, including the New Glenn rocket, NASA missions, and the Orbital Reef commercial space station.

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Whether you view it as a small step for the 1 percent or a giant leap for all mankind, commercial space travel has arrived. And the race for the industry’s pole position is heating up.

Blue Origin, the space tourism venture of billionaire ex-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced on X, formerly Twitter, that the company’s New Shepard rocket could fly again as soon as Monday. New Shepard had been grounded by the FAA following the crash of an uncrewed escape capsule in September 2022.