RSS First Step

Short description: Blue Origin New Shepard capsule

RSS First Step

Type| Space capsule
Class| New Shepard crew capsule
Manufacturer| Blue Origin
Flight history
First flight| Blue Origin NS-14
14 January 2021
Last flight|
Active
Flights| 16

RSS First Step (Reusable Space Ship First Step) is a New Shepard space capsule, built and operated by American spaceflight company Blue Origin.[1] It is the third New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and the first to fly passengers. Its first flight was the NS-14 mission, which reached an altitude of 107 km (66 mi) on 14 January 2021.[2]

## History

RSS First Step is the third New Shepard capsule built by Blue Origin, and the first designed to carry passengers. It flew to space for the first time on 14 January 2021, during the NS-14 spaceflight. NS-14 also served as the maiden flight of the NS4 propulsion module.[3] The following flight, NS-15, which was also flown uncrewed by First Step and NS4, tested boarding and deboarding in what Blue Origin called an "astronaut operational exercise."[4]

First Step flew Blue Origin's first crewed flight on 20 July 2021, carrying founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers to space.[5] This made Texas the fourth state to launch humans into space,[6] after Florida, California, and New Mexico. As of November 2022, it has flown five subsequent crewed spaceflights, carrying a total of 31 people into space, including one (Evan Dick) twice.

The New Shepard fleet was grounded from September 2022 until December 2023 due to a failure during the NS-23 mission. The capsule used during the mission, RSS H.G. Wells, managed to abort successfully, while the booster was destroyed. The next mission NS-24 (uncrewed) and the next crewed mission NS-25 took place following an investigation.[7]

## Flights

Mission  | Launch date (UTC)  | Landing date (UTC)  | Crew  | Duration  | Remarks  | Outcome

|
|
|
|
|
|

NS-14  | 14 January 2021  | 14 January 2021  | Uncrewed  | ~10 minutes  | Uncrewed test flight. Maiden flight of NS4 propulsion module.  | Success
NS-15  | 14 April 2021  | 14 April 2021  | Uncrewed  | ~10 minutes  | Uncrewed test flight. Passenger process test conducted. Four Blue Origin employees serve as stand-in passengers.  | Success
NS-16 | 20 July 2021,

13:11

| 20 July 2021,

13:21

* Jeff Bezos
* Mark Bezos
* Wally Funk
* Oliver Daemen

| 10 minutes, 18 seconds  | First crewed flight of the New Shepard vehicle and first crewed spaceflight from Texas. Carried Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers.[8] | Success
NS-18 | 13 October 2021,

14:49

| 13 October 2021,

14:59

* Audrey Powers
* Chris Boshuizen
* Glen de Vries
* William Shatner

| 10 minutes, 17 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Second crewed flight of New Shepard. Carried actor William Shatner and three other paying passengers.[9] | Success
NS-19 | 11 December 2021,

15:00

| 11 December 2021,

15:10

* Laura Shepard Churchley
* Michael Strahan
* Dylan Taylor
* Evan Dick
* Lane Bess
* Cameron Bess

| 10 minutes, 13 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Third crewed flight of New Shepard. First fully crewed New Shepard spaceflight. Carried Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, for whom the vehicle is named after, football player and Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, and four other paying passengers.[10] | Success
NS-20 | 31 March 2022,

13:57

| 31 March 2022,

14:07

* Marty Allen
* Sharon Hagle
* Marc Hagle
* Jim Kitchen
* George Nield
* Gary Lai

| 10 minutes, 4 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Fourth crewed flight of New Shepard. Comedian Pete Davidson was originally expected to be on board, but was unable to fly due to a launch date change. Davidson was replaced by New Shepard chief architect Gary Lai. Five other paying passengers were on board.[11] | Success
NS-21 | 4 June 2022, 13:25  | 4 June 2022, 13:35  |

* Evan Dick
* Katya Echazarreta
* Hamish Harding
* Victor Correa Hespanha
* Jaison Robinson
* Victor Vescovo

| Space tourism mission. Fifth crewed flight of New Shepard. Crew included NS-19 crew member Evan Dick, and undersea explorer Victor Vescovo.[12] | Success
NS-22 | 4 August 2022, 13:56  | 4 August 2022, 14:06  |

* Coby Cotton
* Mário Ferreira
* Vanessa O'Brian
* Clint Kelly III
* Sara Sabry
* Steve Young

| 10 minutes, 22 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Sixth crewed flight of New Shepard. Crew included first Portuguese person and first Egyptian person in space.[13] | Success
NS-25  | 19 May 2024, 14:35  | 19 May 2024, 14:45  |

* Kenneth Hess
* Sylvain Chiron
* Mason Angel
* Ed Dwight
* Carol Schaller
* Gopi Thotakura

| 9 minutes, 53 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Seventh crewed flight of New Shepard. Crew included Ed Dwight, the oldest person to reach space.[14] | Success
NS-26  | 29 August 2024, 13:07  | 29 August 2024, 13:17  |

* [15] Nicolina Elrick
* Rob Ferl
* Eugene Grin
* Eiman Jahangir
* Karsen Kitchen
* Ephraim Rabin

| 10 minutes, 8 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Eight crewed flight of New Shepard. Crew included Karsen Kitchen, the youngest woman to cross the Kármán line (100 km) at 21 years old.  | Success
NS-28  | 22 November 2024, 15:30  | 22 November 2024, 15:40  |

* Emily Calandrelli
* Sharon Hagle (2)
* Marc Hagle (2)
* Austin Litteral
* J. D. Russell
* James (J.D.) Russell
* Henry (Hank) Wolfond

| 10 minutes, 8 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Ninth crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success
NS-30  | 25 February 2025, 15:49  | 25 February 2025, 15:59  |

* Lane Bess (2)
* Jesús Calleja
* Tushar Shah
* Dr. Richard Scott
* [16] Elaine Chia Hyde
* Russell Wilson

| 10 minutes, 8 seconds  | Space tourism mission. Tenth crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success
NS-32  | 31 May 2025, 13:39  | 31 May 2025, 13:49  |

* Paul Jeris
* Jesse Williams
*   * Aymette (Amy) Medina Jorge
* Dr. Gretchen Green
* Jaime Alemán
* Mark Rocket

| 10 minutes, 7 seconds  | Space tourism mission. 12th crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success
NS-34  | 3 August 2025, 12:42  | 3 August 2025, 12:52  |

* Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal
* Gökhan Erdem
* Deborah Martorell
* Lionel Pitchford
* James (J.D.) Russell
* Justin Sun

| 10 minutes, 14 seconds  | Space tourism mission. 14th crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success
NS-36  | 8 October 2025, 13:40  | 8 October 2025, 13:50  |

* Clint Kelly III
* Aaron Newman
* Jeff Elgin
* Vitalii Ostrovsky
* Danna Karagussova
* William H. Lewis

| 10 minutes, 21 seconds  | Space tourism mission. 15th crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success
NS-38  | 22 January 2026, 16:25  | 22 January 2026, 16:35  |

* Tim Drexler
* Linda Edwards
* Alain Fernandez
* Alberto Gutiérrez
* Jim Hendren
* Laura Stiles

| 10 minutes, 12 seconds  | Space tourism mission. 17th crewed flight of New Shepard.  | Success

## References

1. ↑ Burghardt, Thomas (2021-01-14). "Blue Origin tests New Shepard capsule upgrades on NS-14 mission" (in en-US). https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/01/blue-origin-test-upgrades-ns-14/.
2. ↑ "Blue Origin's New Shepard spaceship aces uncrewed rehearsal for crewed space trips" (in en-US). 2021-01-14. https://www.geekwire.com/2021/blue-origins-new-shepard-spaceship-aces-uncrewed-rehearsal-crewed-flight-space/.
3. ↑ "Mission NS-14" (in en). https://www.blueorigin.com/events/ns-14.
4. ↑ Sheetz, Michael (2021-04-14). "Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches and lands rocket New Shepard, as it prepares to launch people" (in en). https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/watch-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-launch-new-shepard-ns-15-livestream.html.
5. ↑ Roulette, Joey (2021-07-20). "Blue Origin successfully sends Jeff Bezos and three others to space and back" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/20/22582735/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-space-launch-landing.
6. ↑ Leinfelder, Andrea (2021-07-20). "With Jeff Bezos on board, Blue Origin launches first crewed spaceflight from West Texas" (in en-US). https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-west-texas-launch-rocket-16326221.php.
7. ↑ "Blue Origin rocket malfunctions, triggers dramatic but safe abort for unpiloted New Shepard capsule" (in en-US). 12 September 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-rocket-malfunctions-triggers-dramatic-but-safe-abort-for-unpiloted-new-shepard-capsule/.
8. ↑ "Jeff Bezos launches to space aboard New Shepard rocket ship" (in en-GB). BBC News. 2021-07-20. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57849364.
9. ↑ "Blue Origin successfully and safely completes second human flight to space and back" (in en). https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-18-mission-updates.
10. ↑ "Blue Origin Completes Third Human Spaceflight" (in en). https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-19-mission-updates.
11. ↑ "Blue Origin's 20th Mission to Space" (in en). https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-20-mission-announcement.
12. ↑ "New Shepard Mission NS-21 to Fly Six Customer Astronauts, Including First Mexican-Born Woman to Visit Space". 9 May 2022. https://spacenews.com/new-shepard-mission-ns-21-to-fly-six-customer-astronauts-including-first-mexican-born-woman-to-visit-space/.
13. ↑ "First Egyptian and Portuguese Astronauts to join Dude Perfect Cofounder on New Shepard's 22nd Flight" (in en-US). https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-22-mission-announcement.
14. ↑ "New Shepard's 25th Mission Includes America's First Black Astronaut Candidate" (in en-US). https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-25-mission-announcement.
15. ↑ Elrick is a permanent resident of Singapore, and intends to become a Singapore citizen.
16. ↑ Chia was born and raise in Singapore, but Singapore does not allow dual citizenship.

* v
* t
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Blue Origin

Staff|

* Jeff Bezos (founder)
* Robert Smith (chief executive officer)
* Jeffrey Ashby (chief of mission assurance)

Launch vehicles|

* Goddard
* New Shepard
* New Glenn

Rocket engines|

* BE-1
* BE-2
* BE-3
* BE-4
* BE-7

Facilities|

* Kent-Seattle headquarters
* West Texas launch site
* SLC-36 Florida

Other projects|

* Blue Moon

Related articles|

* ULA Vulcan

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