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New Shepard
18m
Human (1.8m)
1.8m
New Shepard / Credits: Wikipedia (Wikimedia Commons)
United StatesActive Crewed2015–2026
New Shepard
Blue Origin
Blue Origin's fully reusable suborbital rocket, designed for space tourism and scientific payloads.
New Shepard is a vertical take-off, vertical landing suborbital launch system developed by Blue Origin. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, it carries passengers and payloads to above the Kármán line (100 km). Both the booster and crew capsule land autonomously. It has carried paying customers including Jeff Bezos on its first crewed flight in July 2021.
Fun facts
New Shepard has flown the same booster more than 6 times — demonstrating rapid reusability.
Passengers experience about 3 minutes of weightlessness above the Kármán line.
Jeff Bezos flew on the first crewed New Shepard mission on July 20, 2021 — the anniversary of Apollo 11.
Height
18 m
Diameter
3.7 m
Mass
75 t
Stages
2
Thrust
490 kN
Payload LEO
1,000 kg
Payload GTO
—
Total flights
38
Success rate97.4%
37 success1 failure
Launch pads
- Launch Site One, Van Horn, Texas
Upcoming launches
AayulSAT-1A & others
31 Dec 2026 · 00:00 UTC
T-about 2 months
—
SBS-3
31 Mar 2027 · 00:00 UTC
T-5 months
—
Space MAITRI
31 Dec 2027 · 00:00 UTC
T-about 1 year
—
