A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launched the NS-25 mission from Texas. Watch the crew enjoying zero-g and flight highlights.
According to Space.com, the Six people aboard were Ed Dwight, the U.S.'s first-ever Black astronaut candidate; venture capitalist Mason Angel; Sylvain Chiron, the founder of French craft brewery Brasserie Mont Blanc; entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess; retired accountant Carol Schaller; and pilot and aviator Gopi Thotakura.
01:29The rocket and our astronauts are heading up to space!
01:33Now you can follow along on the bottom left of your screen, the altimeter on the left, excuse me, altimeter on the right, and the speedometer on the left.
01:5010,000 feet.
02:03All right, as we go through this flight, there are a couple of milestones here. The first one will be max-Q. That's when the dynamic pressures are the highest on the vehicle. We go from 100% power, pull it back a little bit as we go through max-Q, and then ramp her back up to 100%.
02:23We're back to 10 seconds.
02:27Max-Q, Max-Q.
02:28Okay, maximum pressure.
02:3550,000 feet.
02:37Max-G should be in about 10 seconds.
02:39Wow.
02:43Wow.
02:53Max-Q has been confirmed.
02:55Again, thank you, everybody, for joining us for New Shepard's 25th mission to space.
03:00So far, a nominal flight.
03:03We have gone through Max-Q.
03:04100,000 feet.
03:06And the vehicle will continue to climb under full power of the BE-3 engine.
03:14The next milestone will be main engine cutoff.
03:18You will know when that happens, when you see the glow of the engine at the base of the rocket go dim.
03:32There we go.
03:36Main engine cutoff confirmed.
03:38Now, with the main engine cutoff, with the BE-3 engine turned off, the vehicle continues to climb up towards its apogee.
03:56But as you will see on the left side, the speedometer will come down.
04:00And once that speedometer hits zero, that's when you know exactly that the vehicle has hit apogee, its highest altitude, in the flight of the vehicle.
04:14Now, I understand that separation of the capsule from the booster has been confirmed.
04:20All right, let's do this.
04:24All right, all over first.
04:26Let's all over first.
04:28Let's do this.
04:29Woo!
04:29Woo!
04:30Oh my God!
04:31Oh my God!
04:32Oh my God!
04:33Oh my God!
04:34Woo!
04:35Woo!
04:35Woo!
04:36Woo!
04:36Look at the Earth!
04:37Look at the Earth!
04:38Oh man!
04:39Oh my God!
04:40Oh my God!
04:42Oh my God!
04:44Oh my God!
04:45This is like insane.
04:48Okay, I got a few things to do.
04:50Woohoo!
04:51Woohoo!
04:52First for you!
04:53Cam appears!
04:54Woohoo!
04:55Woohoo!
04:56Woohoo!
04:57Woohoo!
04:58Dude, look at the Earth! Just look outside!
05:02Thank God!
05:03It's just weird space!
05:04Dude, weird space!
05:06Man is happy, buddy.
05:08India with pride.
05:10India to space.
05:11India to space!
05:13Woohoo!
05:15Hey there!
05:28All right, you see the booster that is headed down.
05:33You see the drag fins, the drag brakes that have just deployed.
05:38Those cut the speed of the booster in half.
05:41Also at the top of the rocket there, you see the forward fins.
05:46They kind of look like pie slices, one on each quadrant.
05:50That helps keep the vehicle stable.
05:52And there we go, BE-3 engine relight.
05:58Landing gear deployed.
06:0250 feet.
06:07Can you press second?
06:09Touchdown.
06:11Auto 7 started.
06:13And touchdown!
06:16Welcome home, New Shepard!
06:19What a beautiful flight to space and back for that booster.
06:25But the show is not over.
06:29The crew capsule has deployed its guide parachutes and its mains.
06:36Everything looking nominal on today's flight.
06:41It looks like we do have two parachutes that have full inflation.
06:49The third is not quite fully inflated.
06:52But actually, Jackie, this is part of the design.
06:59One of the, in fact, we were talking about my webcast.
07:02The first webcast that we did, we actually, we tested a shootout.
07:07There are multiple redundant factors in this system.
07:13And so landing with two parachutes is perfectly okay for this system.
07:18You'll also see the dust take out of the base of the capsule as she comes in to land.
07:25That is the air cushioning system.
07:27It's going to kick up a lot of that West Texas dust you just talked about.
07:30But also, there it is, touchdown of the crew capsule.
07:34A beautiful flight for our rocket, for our crew capsule, for our six new astronauts, Mason, Sylvain, Ken, Carol, Gopi, and Ed.
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