Commercial spaceflight operator Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, launches its ninth New Shepard flight. The uncrewed (but human-rated) capsule includes several commercial and research payloads, but serves primarily as a test of the ascent escape engine system designed to pull a crewed New Shepard capsule clear of a booster in the event of an anomaly during launch. As with past missions, both the capsule and its single-stage suborbital booster come in for soft landings near Blue Origin’s Texas launch facility. This is the third flight for the third New Shepard reusable capsule, as well as the third flight for the third New Shepard reusable booster.
