Blue Origin to simulate lunar gravity during New Shepard launch: How to watch
A Blue Origin spacecraft will attempt to mimic lunar gravity in a daring maneuver during a planned Tuesday morning launch from West Texas.
The New Shepard vehicle was developed by billionaire Jeff Bezos' space technology company to fly cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space. Now, on its 29th overall flight, the spacecraft's capsule will attempt something it has never done before: rotating mid-flight to induce a few minutes of moon-like weightlessness to test the cargo it will have aboard.
The flight test comes as Blue Origin continues to become a major player in the commercial space industry – competing with the likes of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX for NASA's business, as well as the business of other private companies.
Here's everything to know about the upcoming New Shepard mission, dubbed NS-29, including how to watch it:
A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches March 31, 2022 from West Texas with a crew of six people.
Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company launches next New Shepard spacecraft from Texas without a crew
When is the Blue Origin launch?
The launch window for the New Shepard opens at 9 a.m. EST from Launch Site One, more than 140 miles east of El Paso in Culberson County, according to Blue Origin.
The company first tried to launch the NS-29 mission on Jan. 28, but called off that try due to poor weather and technical issues.
How to watch the New Shepard takeoff
Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket has to date flown 47 people to the edge of space on nine of its 28 flights.
Blue Origin will provide a livestream of the takeoff, beginning 15 minutes prior to the launch window opening, on its website.
What is Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket?
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media in 2017 about the New Shepard rocket booster in Colorado.
New Shepard is a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable, with a capsule that returns to Earth via three parachutes.
Depending on the amount of cargo being transported, the capsule can hold up to six passengers for a brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of outer space. The passengers then can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth.
The rocket itself is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which propels it to suborbit before restarting to slow the booster down to just 6 miles per hour for a controlled landing back on the launch pad.
The New Shepard flew 15 times without a crew beginning in 2012 before Bezos joined the first crewed flight in 2021 to ride atop the rocket as part of NS-16.
The spacecraft's most recent flight was in November 2024 with a crew of six people, bringing the total number of people who have traveled on a New Shepard spacecraft to 47.
A month prior in October, Blue Origin completed a launch and landing of an uncrewed demonstration for a new version of the New Shepard – the second New Shepard vehicle designed for passengers. While no humans were aboard during the demonstration, nine of the 28 missions Blue Origin has conducted to date have carried a crew.
Blue Origin to attempt moon gravity simulation
The New Shepard mission is far from the first to carry scientific payloads to the edge of space, but it will be the first to attempt to simulate the moon's gravity.
To pull off the feat, the capsule will have to spin at a rate of about 11 revolutions per minute, providing at least two minutes of lunar gravity forces. The spacecraft will carry 30 science payloads, all but one of which will be to test technology under lunar-like conditions.
Almost all of the cargo belongs to NASA, and comes as the U.S. space agency plans to send humans back to the moon in the years ahead under its Artemis campaign.
Previously, the moon’s gravity could only be simulated for a few seconds at a time at NASA's zero-gravity research facility or for about 20 seconds during parabolic flights.
Blue Origin previously launched New Glenn on maiden flight
The upcoming launch of the New Shepard vehicle comes less than a month since Blue Origin got its massive New Glenn rocket off the ground for its maiden flight.
People on the beach in Cape Canaveral watch the historic maiden launch of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket launched at 2:03 a.m. EST January 16th from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The white streak on the right side of the photo is a drone.
The 320-foot heavy-lift launch vehicle, which launched without a crew on Jan. 16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, is meant to challenge SpaceX in regularly deploying satellites and other cargo into orbit.
Named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rivals SpaceX's 400-foot Starship in size. Its first stage, powered by seven Blue Origin engines known as BE-4, is designed to be reusable for 25 missions.
The key objective of the New Glenn's first uncrewed spaceflight last month was for the second stage of the vehicle to safely reach orbit before Blue Origin attempted to land the rocket booster, or first stage, on a barge several hundred miles offshore in the Atlantic. While the second stage did reach orbit, Blue Origin said the booster was lost during the descent.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blue Origin's New Shepard to simulate moon's gravity: Watch launch
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