Blue Origin to pause space tourism for 2 yrs, focus on human lunar flights
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New Delhi: Jeff Bezos-owned space company Blue Origin has announced that it will pause its space tourism operations for at least two years as it redirects its focus towards landing humans on the Moon.
In a blog post, the company said it will retire its New Shepard rocket — its first fully reusable suborbital spaceflight system capable of vertical landing, for a minimum of two years. Blue Origin said the move is aimed at shifting resources to accelerate the development of its human lunar flight capabilities.
“The decision reflects Blue Origin’s commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence,” the company said.
Since 2021, New Shepard has been carrying passengers to suborbital space on missions lasting about 11 minutes above the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space. To date, the US-based company has conducted 38 flights, carrying 98 people beyond the Kármán line, with the most recent flight taking place just a week ago.
In addition to human flights, the suborbital vehicle has launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads from students, academic institutions, research organisations and NASA. Blue Origin said the system’s consistent and reliable performance, coupled with a strong customer experience, has resulted in a multi-year backlog of customers.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin is advancing its lunar ambitions under a $3.4 billion contract with NASA to develop the Blue Moon lander, which is designed to transport NASA astronauts to and from the Moon. The Blue Moon lander is slated to support the Artemis 5 mission, currently targeted for launch in 2029.
The company also plans to launch a pathfinder version of the lander, known as Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1-SN001), on a robotic demonstration mission to the lunar surface later this year.
Blue Moon Mark 1 is a single-launch lunar cargo lander that will remain on the Moon’s surface, providing safe, reliable and affordable access to the lunar environment. Leveraging the 7-metre fairing of the New Glenn launch vehicle, the MK1 is designed to deliver up to three metric tonnes of cargo to any location on the lunar surface.
Earlier this month, Blue Origin also announced plans to build a satellite communications network called TeraWave, aimed at providing connectivity to data centres, governments and businesses. The company said deployment of the network is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2027.
With IANS inputs