Crystal-Blue Morning Becomes Launchpad to Infinity
At sunrise on a crisp Saturday, a sleek white rocket pierced the West Texas sky, hoisting six adventurers—four men and two women—beyond the 100-kilometre Kármán line. For roughly four minutes, the cabin fell silent while Earth’s horizon curved like a living marble below them, gifting each traveller a meditative moment of free-fall and sightlines stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains.
A Crew Hand-Picked for Global Perspective
- Captain of Diplomacy: Jaime Alemán, Panamanian lawyer and former ambassador to the United States.
- Scientific Pioneer: A Canadian bio-medical researcher studying micro-gravity effects on human cells.
- Tech Visionary: A British software entrepreneur seeking inspiration for the next generation of satellites.
- Artistic Storyteller: An Italian cinematographer filming footage for a forthcoming IMAX documentary.
- Adventure Philanthropist: An Australian philanthropist celebrating a milestone gift for STEM scholarships.
- Aspiring Astronaut: A Japanese university student who won her seat through a global essay contest.
Journey Flow: T-Minus to Touchdown
- Ground to Flame: New Shepard ignited at 9:17 a.m. CDT, accelerating to 3,600 km/h in 150 seconds.
- Engine Cutoff & Separation: The BE-3 engine shut down; crew capsule glided above the atmosphere.
- Weightless Silence: Loose M&Ms tumbled and collided like slow-motion meteors inside the cabin.
- Feather-Return Fall: Drogues deployed; windows filled again with azure desert before a gentle skid in soft sand.
Voices from the Capsule
Jaime Alemán’s verdict: “It feels as if someone pressed fast-forward on a lifetime of travel. The silence is thick, the Earth is impossibly bright, and you realise every journey before today was merely rehearsal.”
Next Horizons
With the twelfth successfully crewed mission complete, Blue Origin prepares New Shepard 4 for an autumn launch dedicated to climate-science payloads. For the six newest astronauts, the day ended with champagne, laughter, and an unspoken question: “How soon can we go back up?”
Blue Origin Sends Another Six-Passenger Crew Past the 100-Kilometer Mark
On a clear West Texas morning, Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle ignited its BE-3 hydrogen engine and surged skyward at 9:39 a.m. EDT. The twelfth operational human flight of the program unfolded in a crisp six-minute climb, pushing the reusable booster to a velocity just above 2 000 mph before its textbook release of the crew capsule.
Capsule Performance at the Edge of Space
- Ascent to 104.9 km: After separation, the crew capsule continued coasting, topping out at 65.2 statute miles—well beyond the Kármán line that divides atmosphere from space.
- 180-second micro-gravity window: Six crew members floated freely, peering through the capsule’s 3.5-ft x 2.4-ft windows—still the largest currently flying on any operational spacecraft.
- Feather-mode descent: A controlled feathering maneuver slowed the craft, before three drogue chutes and ultimately large main parachutes completed the gentle parachute-assisted touchdown near the launch site.
The Sixth Private Astronaut Crew
Seated aboard NS-25 were:
- Aymette Medina Jorge – entrepreneur and life-sciences executive, California.
- Gretchen Green – physician and public-health strategist, Kentucky.
- Paul Jeris – private investor with ties to aerospace manufacturing, Texas.
- Josefina “Josie” Alemán – telecommunications consultant and STEM advocate, Mexico.
- Jesse Williams – film-industry financier from Vancouver, Canada.
- Mark Rocket – serial technology entrepreneur and investor from Christchurch, New Zealand.
From Launch to Landing — 10:27 a.m. EDT
From lift-off to chute-landing, the entire mission lasted eleven minutes. The booster executed its flawless rocket-powered return, reigniting its engine a final time at approximately 6 000 ft to land upright a mere two miles from the launch stand—setting the stage for its next refurbishment cycle and a future flight.
Commercial Flight Cadence Accelerates
With this twelfth crewed sub-orbital mission, Blue Origin has now carried a total of 42 private citizens past the threshold of space. Company officials stated that NS-26 could launch as early as the fourth quarter unless vehicle inspections reveal any unexpected issues.
Gumdrop Capsule & Feather-Landing Booster Conclude Flawless Texas Flight
Launch to Recovery: Eleven Minutes That Redefined Reusability
Autonomous Rocket Dances Back Down
Seconds after separating from its crew cabin, the New Shepard booster flipped 180 degrees, tail pointing skyward like a compass needle reversing itself. Throttled down to a whisper, its BE-3 engine coughed back to life seven minutes into the mission, four carbon-fiber legs unfolding outward as if the vehicle balanced on invisible stilts. It kissed the nearby landing circle, kicking up pale West-Texas dust before settling squarely in the center—the same pad that had witnessed its departure only minutes earlier.
- Return velocity shaved from 2,200 mph to zero in under four seconds
- Leg span widens to 16 ft to absorb final touchdown shock
- Ground crews wheeled recovery rigs within minutes for routine post-flight inspection
Capsule’s Slow Motion Descent
While the booster raced the clock, the gumdrop-shaped capsule chose relaxation over urgency. It paused almost lazily at apogee, then unfurled three billowing parachutes—each the size of a suburban lawn—turning its fall into a gentle drift. Ten minutes after ignition, the capsule kissed the desert floor, sending up a puff of dust before its delighted occupants burst out cheers.
“You guys, we did it!” rang a voice through the open hatch, half-laugh, half-awe.
Next Stop: Refurbish, Reload, Repeat
Engineers now inspect every inch of the booster, swapping out expendable seals and recharging hydraulic lines. Parachute canisters are repacked; heat shield tiles wiped clean of residual soot. By nightfall, both capsule and rocket will be back indoors at the Blue Origin complex—ready to trade roles from proven veterans to fresh launch partners sometime very soon.
“I’m in Awe!”—Gretchen Green Pops Champagne After Gliding Home from the Edge of Space
Gretchen Green stepped out of New Shepard’s crew capsule Monday morning, arms raised high above a red New-Mexico dirt ribbon that now decorated her hair, and let a single word tumble out: “Speechless.” Minutes earlier the 31-year-old American had soared more than 100 km above the Texas desert—high enough for the curved Earth and the black cosmos to blur together—and then floated back beneath three parachutes to a gentle touchdown on Blue Origin’s landing pad.
What the 12th Tourist Flight Looked Like
- Rocket ignition at 9:14 a.m. CDT.
- Maximum velocity reached Mach 3.
- Four minutes of pure weightlessness as six travelers unbuckled and tumbled inside the white-walled cabin.
- Descent back into the lower atmosphere in 11 minutes flat.
The crew—engineers, entrepreneurs and one first-time flier from Texas—greeted family members with champagne and still-sealed snack packs of freeze-dried strawberries.
How Many People Have Flown, Really?
Since founder Jeff Bezos ascended on New Shepard’s first crewed voyage back in July 2021, Blue Origin has launched 68 individuals.
Four of those adventurers now carry a pair of astronaut wings apiece after scoring return invitations.
The Price Tag That No One Mentions
Neither Blue Origin nor its clients publish ticket prices, yet industry insiders whisper numbers around half-a-million dollars per seat.
Exception: medical researcher Jorge Ríos rode this week on a sponsorship granted by Farmacias Similares, a Mexican chain known for low-cost prescriptions across Latin America.
The Vacuum of Competition
Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s once-swift rival, set aside its original VSS Unity this past June to pursue two next-generation Delta-class spaceplanes. It has left the sub-orbital passenger stage entirely to Blue Origin—for now—and intends to reopen ticket books sometime next year with longer windows of zero-gravity.
For Gretchen Green, though, the calendar already matters less than the feeling: “I crossed the Kármán line,” she laughed, fingers trembling around a foil-wrapped Earth cookie. “That desert looks different when you come home from orbit.”
