NS-13

Mission

NS-13

• Type: Suborbital
• Orbit: Suborbital

This will be the 13th New Shepard mission and the 7th consecutive flight for this particular vehicle (a record), demonstrating its operational reusability.

New Shepard will fly 12 commercial payloads to space and back on this mission, including the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership. This is the first payload to fly mounted on the exterior of a New Shepard booster rather than inside the capsule, opening the door to a wide range of future high-altitude sensing, sampling, and exposure payloads.

Location

West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch

Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch has witnessed the launch of 32 rockets, including 0 orbital launch attempts. While Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA, has been the site for 32 rocket launches.

Corn Ranch, commonly referred to as Launch Site One (LSO), is a spaceport owned and operated by Blue Origin which is located approximately 30 miles north of the town of Van Horn, Texas, United States.

Rocket

Blue Origin New Shepard

The New Shepard reusable launch system is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL), suborbital manned rocket that is being developed by Blue Origin as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism.

Learn more about the New Shepard

Core NS-3

New Shepard has successfully landed after its 7th launch. Booster NS-3 last launched 09/12/2022 and has seen 8 successful launches and landings. New Shepard vehicle #3 was the third flight vehicle of the New Shepard suborbital rocket. It suffered an anomaly during its ninth flight.

A sonic boom is likely to occur a few minutes after launch as the booster returns to the launch site. Be prepared for a loud but thrilling experience! Learn more about rocket launch sonic booms

Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West Texas - CR

New Shepard landing site.

Return to Launch Site - RTLS

A return to launch site usually means that after stage separation the booster flips and does a burn back towards the launch site, landing near where it initially launched from.

Agency

Blue Origin

Blue Origin is an American privately funded aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos with its headquarters in Kent, Washington. The company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin currently launches its New Shepard sub-orbital vehicle from its West Texas launch site, they are currently constructing a launch pad for their orbital vehicle New Glenn at Cape Canaveral LC-36.