Blue Origin NS-24 was an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight mission of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, which launched on 19 December 2023. It was New Shepard's first flight in over a year since the failure of Blue Origin NS-23, and was Blue Origin's 24th overall flight to go into space.[1][2]
| Mission type | Uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight |
|---|---|
| Mission duration | 10 minutes, 13 seconds |
| Apogee | 107.06 km (66.52 mi) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | RSS H. G. Wells |
| Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 19 December 2023, 16:42:28 UTC |
| Rocket | New Shepard (NS4) |
| Launch site | Corn Ranch, LS-1 |
| Contractor | Blue Origin |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 19 December 2023 16:52:41 UTC |
| Landing site | Corn Ranch |
Flight
editThe vehicle lifted off at 16:42:28 UTC on December 19, 2023, from LS-1 at Blue Origin's Corn Ranch launch site in Texas, United States. There were no issues during the flight, like there were on Blue Origin NS-23. Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) occurred at T+02:25. The capsule reached apogee at T+04:07, reaching an altitude of 351,247 feet (107,060 meters), while the booster reached an apogee of 350,855 feet (106,940 meters).[2][3][4] The booster touched down successfully at T+07:27 on the North Landing Pad.[1][4] At 10:52:41 am CST (16:52:41 UTC), the crew capsule landed at the Corn Ranch site, 10 minutes and 13 seconds after liftoff.[2] The booster supporting this mission was New Shepard Booster 4 (NS4), and this was its 9th total flight with a 502-day turnaround time, while the capsule on top was the RSS H. G. Wells.[5]
Payload
editThere were 33 payloads on this mission from NASA, academia, research institutions and commercial companies. This flight brought the total number of payloads flown on the New Shepard vehicle to 150. There were also 38,000 postcards from students across the world, provided by the Club for the Future organization, a Blue Origin nonprofit, as part of its "Postcards to Space" program. According to Blue Origin, more than half the payloads on NS-24 were developed and flown with support from NASA.[2][6][7] One of the payloads flown was a prototype of the EagleCam CubeSat that flew on the IM-1 mission to the Moon.[8][9][10]
References
edit- ^ a b Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-24 Webcast, retrieved 2023-12-20
- ^ a b c d "Blue Origin Successfully Completes 24th Mission to Space". Blue Origin. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ "Today's #NS24 mission stats".
- ^ a b Mike Wall (2023-12-19). "Blue Origin launches New Shepard rocket, aces landing in 1st return to flight since 2022 failure (video)". Space.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ "New Shepard | NS-24". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ Sesnic, Trevor (2023-12-18). "Blue Origin's New Shepard returns to flight". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ Roth, Emma (2023-12-19). "Blue Origin successfully launched and recovered its New Shepard booster". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
- ^ "Blue Origin launches New Shepard rocket on return to flight mission – Spaceflight Now". Retrieved 2024-03-03.
- ^ Volosín, Juan I. Morales (2023-12-17). "NS-24 | New Shepard". Everyday Astronaut. Retrieved 2024-03-03.
- ^ Foust, Jeff (2023-12-19). "New Shepard returns to flight with successful suborbital mission". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2024-03-03.