The New Shepard reusable launch vehicle is a manned rocket which is being developed by Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism. Blue Origin is a privately-funded aerospace company initially focused on sub-orbital spaceflight. ... Amazon. ... Jeff Bezos on the cover of TIME as Person of the Year 1999 Jeffrey Preston Bezos (born January 12, 1964) is the president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon. ...

The New Shepard makes reference to first US astronaut in space Alan Shepard. It would be assembled in the Blue Origin facility in the state of Washington near Seattle and launched from West Texas. Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. ... City nickname Emerald City City bird Great Blue Heron City flower Dahlia City mottos The City of Flowers The City of Goodwill City song Seattle, the Peerless City Mayor Greg Nickels County King County Area   - Total   - Land   - Water   - % water 369. ...

The New Shepard is composed of two main elements: a crew module, to accommodate three or more space tourists, and a propulsion module. The composite vehicle has a conical shape, a diameter of 7 meter and a height of 15 meters. Its looks and technical concept are strongly reminiscent of the DC-X. Space tourism is the recent phenomenon of space travel by individuals for the purpose of personal pleasure. ... The Delta Clipper Advanced The McDonnell Douglas DC-X, better known as the Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an unmanned prototype of a reusable single stage to orbit launch vehicle developed in conjunction with NASA and the DOD SDIO from 1991 to 1993. ...

Propulsion

The propulsion module is powered by High test peroxide (HTP) and RP-1 kerosene. The total mass of the propellant is 54 tons and the thrust is 1000 kN. High test peroxide or HTP is a high (85 to 98 percent) concentration solution of hydrogen peroxide. ... RP-1 (refined petroleum) is a highly refined form of kerosene similar to jet fuel, used in the United States as a rocket fuel. ...

Mission

The New Shepard launches vertically from West Texas and performs a powered flight for about 110 s and an altitude of 40 km. The unpowered flight culminates at an altitude of about 100 km. After culmination the vehicle performs a descent and restarts its main engines a few tens of second before vertical landing, close to its launch site.

As a variant, the propulsion and crew module could separate close to culmination altitude, and the propulsion module would perform a powered landing while the crew module would land under a parachute.

The crew module can also separate in case of vehicle malfunction or other emergency, using solid propellant separation boosters, in order to protect the passengers, and perform a parachute landing.

The total mission duration of the New Shepard will be 10 minutes.

Development schedule

Initial low altitude flight testing (up to 600 m) with subscale prototypes is scheduled for the second half of 2006. It could involve up to ten flights.

Incremental flight testing to 100 km altitude should be carried between 2007 and 2009 with increasingly larger and more capable prototypes.

The full-scale vehicle should be operational for revenue service in 2010, and could fly up to 50 times a year.

External link

• Blue Origin West Texas Commercial Launch Site Environmental Assessment PDF File