Blue Origin completes sixth New Shepard suborbital flight with space tourists

On its sixth crewed flight in just over a year, Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard suborbital vehicle on August 4th, carrying six passengers that included the first Egyptian and Portuguese individuals to fly into space. New Shepard rose from Launch Site One in West Texas at 9:56 a.m. Eastern for the NS-22 mission. The booster touched down seven and a half minutes after blastoff while the capsule, which reached an altitude of around 107 kilometers before landing under parachutes 10 minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff, did so under parachutes.

The third crewed mission, the NS-22, carried a crew of six and was nicknamed “Titanium Feather”. Blue Origin has now flown 31 people on six crewed flights, including one individual who flew twice. Those missions have taken place over less than a year, dating back to July 2021's launch with CEO Jeff Bezos and three others aboard the NS-16 mission.

In February, Bob Smith, the CEO of Blue Origin, said that the company would "easily double" the 14 people who went to space on three New Shepard crewed flights in 2021 this year. So far this year, the firm has carried out three missions with 18 passengers aboard.

At the time, John Smith would not give a precise goal in terms of the number of flights it would take to complete, but he did say that a new New Shepard vehicle as well as shortening the turnaround time between missions would be required. The company has been utilizing the same capsule and booster for all six crewed flights to date, with a turnaround period of around two months between recent missions.