Blue Origin hasn’t carried out a crewed launch since 2022, and is getting ready to do so once more after being required to implement 21 fixes required by the Federal Aviation Administration last year. Six human beings are flying aboard its New Shepard rocket today, including Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate, who was selected by US President John F. Kennedy, but never made it into space.
The five other passengers on the flight are Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and Gopi Thotakura. The company posted just after 8AM ET that New Shepard was vertical on the launchpad, and that it had updated its targeted launch time to 10:13AM ET.
Today’s flight will be its seventh one with an actual crew on board. Blue Origin paused its space tourism flights in 2022 after a booster failed on an uncrewed flight, prompting an FAA investigation that led to the US regulator’s recommendations.
Correction May 19th: This article previously said this is Blue Origin’s sixth crewed mission, but in fact, it’s the seventh. That has been corrected, as has the spelling of Ed Dwight’s name.
