| Advertisement |
Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin launched the 24th mission of its New Shepard suborbital rocket Tuesday from Launch Site One in West Texas. The rocket left the launch pad shortly after the launch window opened at 10:37 a.m. CST. The mission had been scrubbed Monday due to a ground system issue.
Advertisement
Mission NS-24 carried 33 science and research payloads into space to conduct research in microgravity. The flight included 38,000 postcards from students around the world.
Also on Tuesday's flight was Teachers in Space, an experiment to collect data in microgravity. It was designed in classrooms in Maine, New Mexico and Kansas to provide training and opportunities for teachers and students to learn about space flight.
Tuesday's launch was the first for the rocket since an unmanned booster failure in September 2022.
The flight lasted about 10 minutes, including about 2 1/2 minutes in boost phase before the crew capsule separated from the booster, reaching an apogee of about 351,247 feet.
The capsule experienced 180 seconds of microgravity before dropping back to the ground, aided by parachutes.
Erika Wagner, who co-hosted the live stream of the launch with Eddie Seyffert, called the booster a "pleasantly toasty marshmallow" after returning to the landing pad.
"I absolutely love being out in the desert standing next to a rocket that just that morning flew up to space and back," she said.
Tuesday's launch was New Shepard's 13th payload mission, making a total of 150 payloads brought to space. No people were on board Tuesday's flight, but the program has launched 31 men and women above the Earth's atmosphere in six astronaut missions. It was the ninth mission for the reusable booster.
Nearly 99% of the rocket's dry mass is reusable, including booster, capsule, engine, landing gear and parachutes. The liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel produces no carbon emissions.
