Blue Origin Halts New Shepard Space Tourism for at Least Two Years

Blue Origin has announced that it will be temporarily halting flights of its New Shepard spacecraft for at least two years. The company has stated that this will enable it to concentrate on the development of its human lunar capabilities, thereby furthering NASA’s Artemis mission to send humans back to the Moon. New Shepard has completed 38 flights, taking 98 passengers on suborbital journeys above the Kármán line. This move will effectively bring an end to its suborbital space tourism program.

Lunar mission focus

According to a statement from Blue Origin, the hiatus will “shift resources to further accelerate development of the company’s human lunar capabilities”. The firm already holds a NASA contract to land astronauts on the Moon using its Blue Moon spacecraft. A robotic test flight is planned this year, and a crewed landing on the Artemis 5 mission is targeted around 2029. The move aligns with NASA’s Artemis programme to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface, focusing Blue Origin’s efforts on deep-space infrastructure.

Suborbital tourism paused

The flights carried out by New Shepard have carried hundreds of payloads and nearly 100 people to suborbital space. The time taken for the entire flight is around 10-12 minutes, in which the passengers get to experience a few minutes of zero gravity and have a glimpse of the Earth in the background of the blackness of space. Since its inception in 2015, New Shepard has flown 38 times (17 crewed flights) with a total of 98 passengers. By shelving the rocket, Blue Origin has essentially paused its high-profile space tourism program.