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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will launch his New Shepard rocket for the fourth time this year but, despite carrying the billionaire founder in a crew on the last flight, Thursday’s mission will not carry people inside the capsule. .

Known as NS-17, this mission from New Shepard is dedicated to transporting goods. Blue Origin is demonstrating NASA’s lunar lander technology and 18 customer search payloads inside the capsule, as well as an art installation on top of the capsule.

“Suborbital Tryptych,” a series of three portraits by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo, is painted on a panel atop the New Shepard crew capsule.

Blue origin

The rocket will be launched from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas, with the goal of reaching over 100,000 kilometers (or over 340,000 feet above sea level) before returning safely to Earth a few minutes later.

Billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos is launched with three crew members aboard a New Shepard rocket on the world’s first unmanned suborbital flight from Blue Origin Launch Site 1 near Van Horn, Texas, July 20, 2021.

Joe Skipper | Reuters

This reusable New Shepard rocket thruster is launched for the eighth time. The booster and capsule for NS-17 are dedicated to air cargo missions, with Blue Origin spinning it along with another booster and capsule for crew missions. The company plans to launch its second crewed flight before the end of the year.

Although the company has not disclosed pricing, New Shepard competes with Virgin Galactic in suborbital space tourism. Bezos said last month that Blue Origin sold nearly $ 100 million worth of tickets for future passenger flights.

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