Blue Origin has successfully launched a new human-rated capsule loaded with with sci-fi cargo and thousands of postcards.

On October 23, 2024, Blue Origin’s 27th mission debuted the second human-rated vehicle for the New Shepard programme.

The successful launch means the company can move ahead with an expanded flight capacity that will “better meet growing customer demand”, says Blue Origin.

The new crew capsule is named RSS Kármán Line. The vehicle features technology upgrades to improve the vehicle’s performance and reusability, an updated livery and accommodations for payloads on the booster.

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The rocket flew 12 payloads – five on the booster and seven inside the crew capsule. Payloads included new navigation systems developed for New Shepard and New Glenn; two different LIDAR sensors for the Lunar Permanence program; and ultra-wideband proximity operations sensors flying as part of a NASA TechFlights grant with Blue Origin’s Space Systems Development group.

It also carried a commercial payload: a reproduction of black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the 1968 film, the monoliths are black slabs with sides in a precise ratio of 1:4:9. These mysterious, cuboid machines were built by an unseen alien species called the Firstborn.

The monoliths are flying on behalf of Spacemanic for a special edition printed by Croatian publisher Amaranthine Books.

“We look forward to welcoming crew onboard RSS Kármán Line soon and offering the New Shepard flight experience to people across the world from all backgrounds,” says Phil Joyce, SVP, New Shepard. “On every New Shepard mission, we’ve witnessed people return to Earth changed by this experience, and with a renewed sense of commitment to preserve our planet.”

The flight carried five payloads on the booster and seven inside the crew capsule, including tens of thousands of postcards flying as part of Club for the Future’s Postcards to Space programme.

This initiative allows participants can send handwritten or illustrated postcards containing their visions of humanity’s future in space or other messages. These postcards are then loaded into payload lockers in the crew capsule and launched from the West Texas desert.

During flight, the capsule separates from the rocket’s booster at an altitude of 100 kilometres. While the reusable booster returns to land on the pad, the capsule containing the postcards floats in space before descending to Earth under parachutes.

Once recovered, each postcard is stamped “Flown to Space” and returned to its sender as a unique space-flown memento. There is no limit to the number of postcards individuals can submit for spaceflight. Digital postcards can be submitted here.

New Shepard remains one of the most sustainable rockets ever to fly to space. Nearly 99% of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear and parachutes.

by Olivia Palamountain | GLOBETRENDER