Bezos' Blue Origin Delays Crewed Launch Of New Shepard NS-21 Spacecraft

Blue Origin, the space flight corporation founded and run by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has delayed the scheduled Friday flight of its New Shepard spacecraft from a base in West Texas with a crew of six because of concerns over the reliability of one of its back up systems, the company announced on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th May, 2022) Blue Origin, the space flight corporation founded and run by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has delayed the scheduled Friday flight of its New Shepard spacecraft from a base in West Texas with a crew of six because of concerns over the reliability of one of its back up systems, the company announced on Wednesday.

"During our final vehicle checkouts, we observed one of New Shepard's backup systems was not meeting our expectations for performance," Blue Origin said via Twitter. "In an abundance of caution, we will be delaying the NS21 launch originally scheduled for Friday.

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New Shepard is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing, crew-rated launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism. The NS-21 flight is planned to be the company's fifth crewed mission and is to be launched from the company's Launch Suite One near Van Horn, Texas.

Passengers on board include previous passenger on the NS-19 mission and investor Evan Dick, business jet brokerage entrepreneur Hamish Harding, commercial real estate businessman Jaison Robinson, private equity investor Victor Vescovo and others.