Blue Origin's New Shepard returning to flight almost two years after incident

After standing down for nearly two years due to an uncrewed flight incident, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is ready to resume crewed New Shepard flights.

Sponsored and paying customers can take a short flight just over the Kármán line, which lies 62 miles up and is the point at which one gains the title of astronaut. The spacecraft is named in honor of the first American in space Alan Shepard, as the flight resembles Shepard's suborbital spaceflight, meaning it doesn't orbit the planet.

Past memorable passengers include not only Jeff Bezos himself, but Wally Funk, one of the first women to take the same training as the Mercury astronauts, and the Star Trek actor who played Captain Kirk, William Shatner.

The NS-25 mission with six passengers is scheduled to lift off on Sunday, May 19, from Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin has not given a specific time, yet the launch window is stated to open at 8:30 a.m. CDT/ 9:30 a.m. EDT.

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Ed Dwight to finally become an astronaut

According to Blue Origin, onboard will be six passengers, including Ed Dwight, an individual who almost became the first Black astronaut during the Gemini era. Dwight was selected by President John F. Kennedy to represent the nation as the first Black astronaut in 1961, yet his opportunity never came to fruition after Kennedy's assassination. While Dwight completed the training and was recommended by the U.S. Air Force, he was passed over for selection into the astronaut corps.

While Dwight left the Air Force in 1966, he went on to pursue successful ventures aside from his passion for flying. According to Blue Origin, nonprofits Space for Humanity and the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Foundation sponsored 90-year-old Dwight's flight, finally giving him the opportunity he had worked for seven decades ago.

Blue Origin New Shepard Failure in 2022

During the uncrewed science payload flight NS-23 on September 12, 2022, the booster experienced a malfunction in flight. The capsule escape system kicked in causing the capsule to separate from the booster before safely landing. Because of this, the payloads were not damaged and any crew onboard would have survived. However, as the incident was investigated, New Shepard remained grounded for 15 months.

It was later determined that a 'thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle' had occurred during the flight.

The same payloads were flown on NS-24 during the December 19, 2023 flight from West Texas. But the wait for the return to crewed flights continued until Sunday's planned launch.

How to watch Blue Origin Crewed Flight

Blue Origin plans to live stream the flight on their website staring 40 minutes before liftoff.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Blue Origin New Shepard returns to flight - onboard is Ed Dwight