Blue Origin launched its 10th space tourism mission this morning (Feb. 25), sending six paying passengers to suborbital space.
After a slight delay due to a hold, Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard vehicle lifted off from the company's West Texas site today at 10:50 a.m. EST (1550 GMT; 9:50 a.m. local Texas time). Blue Origin's New Shepard booster touched down in the dusty Texas desert around seven minutes after liftoff, and the flight's capsule returned to the ground three minutes after that. All three parachutes on the capsule deployed during the crew's descent; on the company's previous uncrewed research flight earlier this month, one of the capsule's parachutes failed to deploy.
The six crewmembers on today's flight named themselves "Perfect 10," launch commentator Eddie Seyffert said during Blue Origin's livestream. "Well, that makes perfect sense to me, considering the fact that this is, in fact, our 10th human flight."
Blue Origin called today's flight NS-30, because it was the 30th overall flight of New Shepard. The mission was the 10th crewed mission of the vehicle, which consists of a reusable booster and a reusable capsule.
The crewmembers on today's flight were venture capitalist Lane Bess (who flew on New Shepard for the second time), Spanish TV host Jesús Calleja, entrepreneur and physicist Elaine Chia Hyde, reproductive endocrinologist Richard Scott and hedge fund partner Tushar Shah. You can learn more about them in our crew reveal story.
Blue Origin did not provide details about the sixth crewmember, and stated that he wished to remain anonymous. But we know that person is a man with the surname Wilson, thanks to the NS-30 mission patch and a few photos that the company has posted on X.
Related: Blue Origin crew, including history's 100th woman to fly to space, lands safely (video)
New Shepard flights last 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown. Passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness during this stretch and get to see Earth against the blackness of space.
We don't know how much a New Shepard ticket costs. Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin's main competitor in the suborbital space tourism industry, currently charges $600,000 per seat.
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