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Blue Origin NS-25

Blue Origin NS-25 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which was launched on 19 May 2024 using the New Shepard rocket.^[1][2]

NS-25 was the first crewed New Shepard flight since NS-22 in August 2022. The New Shepard fleet was grounded following a September 2022 engine failure on an uncrewed mission. The vehicle resumed flight in December 2023.^[3]

NS-25 carried a crew of six to a maximum altitude of around 106 km.^[4] At T+03:12, the crew experienced weightlessness, and at T+03:31, the capsule passed the Kármán line.^[5] The booster landed 7 minutes after launch, while the capsule, deploying only 2 of its 3 parachutes, touched down 10 minutes after liftoff. Launch commentators assured that the capsule is designed to land safely with only two parachutes.^[6][7]

Prime crew

Position	Crew
Tourist	Mason Angel First spaceflight
Tourist	Sylvain Chiron First spaceflight
Tourist	Ed Dwight First spaceflight
Tourist	Kenneth Hess First spaceflight
Tourist	Carol Schaller First spaceflight
Tourist	Gopichand Thotakura First spaceflight

Ed Dwight is often cited as the first African-American astronaut candidate. He made it to the second round of a 1961 Air Force program from which NASA selected astronauts, but was not selected. When he eventually flew as a space tourist on the Blue Origin suborbital flight at age 90 years, 253 days, he became the oldest person to reach space.^[8][9]