Blue Origin will suspend space tourism for a month-long mission
1 February 10:09
Private aerospace company Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has announced that it is putting its New Shepard space tourism program on hold for two years. Instead, it will focus on preparing for future NASA missions to send astronauts to the moon, reports "Komersant Ukrainian", citing DW.
Blue Origin has signed a contract with the US space agency to supply a landing module to deliver astronauts to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, the publication notes.
Bezos’s module was originally planned for use in the Artemis V mission. However, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is developing a spacecraft for the Artemis III and Artemis IV lunar missions, is behind schedule. Therefore, NASA asked both Blue Origin and SpaceX to work on ideas that would speed up the Artemis III flight. The contract is estimated to be worth $3.4 billion, which is much more than the revenue from the New Shepard program.
The United States plans to establish a permanent outpost on the moon by 2030 and build a working nuclear reactor there. It is reported that NASA wants to get ahead of Russia and China, which have their own lunar programs. In December, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for astronauts to land on Earth’s satellite in 2028, before the end of his second presidential term.
Blue Origin’s space achievements
The New Shepard rocket has been used for commercial suborbital flights since 2021. During this time, it has launched 38 times from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas and delivered 92 people to the edge of space. Among them was Jeff Bezos himself, who was one of the first to fly. In April 2024, Blue Origin sent an all-female crew into space for the first time in more than 60 years, including American singer Katy Perry and Bezos’ then-fiancée Lauren Sanchez.
The last flight with six passengers took place last week. Blue Origin said that those wishing to fly into space on New Shepard had queued up for several years in advance.
Bezos’ company says that the experience gained during the New Shepard flights was used to develop the New Glenn heavy rocket. This reusable launch vehicle is expected to be able to deliver up to 45 tons of cargo into Earth orbit, with its booster landing on a platform in the ocean. The first two New Glenn launches took place in January and November 2025, with two satellites heading to Mars on the second launch.
Humans have not landed on the Moon for over 50 years
The last human landing on the Moon to date took place in 1972 and was carried out by the crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft. American astronauts first landed on the Moon in 1969 as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
