After an almost month-long postponement, Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket successfully took flight for its 35th mission this morning, September 18.
Blue Origin successfully launched its uncrewed NS-35 mission today from the company’s West Texas proving grounds. The flight commenced at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT), which was 8:01 a.m. local time in Texas.
Blue Origin’s recent suborbital mission transported over 40 scientific experiments, foregoing a human crew. Twenty-four of these projects originated from the NASA TechRise Student Challenge, an initiative designed to empower students in grades 6 through 12 to develop, construct, and launch their experiments on NASA-supported test flights.
New Shepard operates as a two-component system, featuring both a reusable first-stage rocket and a crew capsule. Its missions consistently breach the Kármán Line, reaching an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) — the internationally recognized boundary of space. From the moment of liftoff to the capsule’s touchdown, each flight typically spans a brief 10 to 12 minutes.
Following a successful launch, the New Shepard booster executed a precise and safe vertical landing approximately 7.5 minutes after liftoff, touching down just two miles from its launch pad. The capsule, completing its suborbital trajectory, then descended under parachutes for a soft touchdown at the T+10:15 mark.
Blue Origin’s NS-35 mission initially targeted an August 23 launch, which was postponed due to an identified issue with the booster’s avionics system. A second attempt on August 26 was similarly scrubbed for the same technical reason. The current effort marks the first launch opportunity for NS-35 since those prior delays.
The upcoming NS-35 mission is poised to launch with more than 40 scientific payloads, a flight that will propel New Shepard’s total deployed payload count beyond 200, the company announced.
Blue Origin has outlined the payload for its NS-35 mission, which includes 24 experiments originating from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. Additionally, the flight will transport thousands of postcards through Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s non-profit organization committed to advancing education in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM).
To date, New Shepard has completed 34 missions, 14 of which have successfully carried people into space, underscoring its active role in crewed spaceflight.
Blue Origin’s most recent mission, NS-34, took off from West Texas on August 3, carrying crypto billionaire Justin Sun and five additional passengers. The aerospace company has previously transported a range of notable individuals, including singer Katy Perry and “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.
