Blue Origin executed its third crewed suborbital flight on June 29th, marking the company's third mission in just two and a half months. The New Shepard vehicle, designated NS-33, lifted off from West Texas at 10:40 a.m. Eastern. Previous launch attempts were postponed due to high winds and cloud cover.
The booster successfully performed a powered landing, followed shortly by the capsule's landing under parachutes, achieving a peak altitude of 105 kilometers. The landing proximity to the booster was notably closer than previous missions. Blue Origin utilized drone footage extensively for its webcast coverage of the six passengers exiting the capsule. The company attributed the precise landing to low winds and accurate predictive models: “FYI, our crew capsule landing location today was due to low winds at Launch Site One and within the safety margins of our predicted models,” they stated on social media.
Passengers included Owolabi Salis, an attorney and financial consultant, who was disbarred in New York in 2022 for filing fraudulent immigration petitions. Also aboard were Allie and Carl Kuehner, a married couple; Leland Larson, a former chief executive of bus companies; Freddie Rescigno, Jr., owner of Commodity Cables; and Jim Sitkin, a retired labor attorney. This marked the second married couple to participate in a New Shepard flight.
This mission follows NS-31 on April 14th and NS-32 on May 31st, making it the fifth New Shepard flight of the year. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp affirmed the financial success of New Shepard, stating at a May conference, “There is an insatiable demand out there for human beings who grew up thinking about space and want to get to space, but it’s still very hard to do right now,” at the Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit.