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Blue Origin Pauses Space Tourism for 2 Years to Focus on Moon Landing

Blue Origin announced it will retire its New Shepard reusable spacecraft for at least two years, halting its space tourism business. The company is reallocating resources to accelerate its human lunar landing program, which includes the Blue Moon lander. Blue Origin holds a major $3.4 billion NASA contract to develop this lander for the Artemis 5 mission targeted for 2029. The company also plans a robotic demonstration mission to the lunar surface later this year.

Key Points: Blue Origin Halts Space Tourism, Focuses on Lunar Program

  • Pausing New Shepard space tourism flights
  • Focusing on Blue Moon lunar lander development
  • Holds $3.4 billion NASA contract for Artemis
  • Plans robotic lunar demo mission this year
2 min read

Blue Origin to pause space tourism for 2 years, focus on lunar human flight programme

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin pauses New Shepard space tourism flights for two years to accelerate development of its human lunar lander for NASA's Artemis missions.

"shift resources to further accelerate development of the company's human lunar capabilities - Blue Origin blogpost"

New Delhi, Jan 31

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has announced plans to pause space tourism and instead will focus on landing humans on the Moon.

In a blogpost, Blue Origin shared that it will be retiring its New Shepard -- the first reusable spaceflight system to vertically land -- for at least two years.

The company said it will "shift resources to further accelerate development of the company's human lunar 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 post added.

Since 2021, New Shepard has provided flight to suborbital space, lasting 11 minutes above the Karman line -- the internationally recognised boundary of space.

The US-based company has, to date, flown 38 times and carried 98 humans above the Kármán line. The last flight took place a week ago.

The suborbital vehicle has also launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads from students, academia, research organisations, and NASA.

"This consistent and reliable performance, combined with an exceptional customer experience, has resulted in a multi-year customer backlog," the company said.

Meanwhile, Blue Origin holds a $3.4 billion contract with NASA to develop its Blue Moon lander, designed to ferry NASA astronauts to and fro from the Moon.

Blue Moon is expected to launch the Artemis 5 mission, targeted to launch in 2029.

The company also plans to launch a pathfinder version of Blue Moon, designated as the Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1-SN001), on a robotic demonstration mission to the lunar surface later this year.

Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) is a single-launch, lunar cargo lander that remains on the surface and provides safe, reliable, and affordable access to the lunar environment. MK1 will provide cargo transport, leveraging the 7-metre fairing of the New Glenn launch vehicle, to deliver up to three metric tons anywhere on the lunar surface.

Earlier this month, the company also announced plans to build a satellite communication network called TeraWave to deliver connectivity to data centers, governments, and businesses.

Blue Origin said it will begin deploying the network in the fourth quarter of 2027.

- IANS

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Reader Comments

P
Priya S
A bit disappointing for space tourism enthusiasts, but understandable. The backlog shows there's huge interest. Maybe after they crack the lunar landing, tickets will become more affordable? Right now, it's only for the ultra-rich anyway.
R
Rohit P
$3.4 billion contract! That's serious money and shows NASA's faith in them. The competition with SpaceX will be interesting to watch. More players in the game is good for science and exploration.
S
Sarah B
While the lunar focus is exciting, I hope the pause on New Shepard doesn't completely halt the access it gave to researchers and students. Those 200+ payloads were valuable for science. The blog says they'll shift resources, but I hope academic access remains a priority.
V
Vikram M
Good decision. The Moon landing is a monumental task. Better to focus and deliver on that promise than spread yourself too thin. The TeraWave satellite network plan is also a clever commercial angle for long-term revenue.
K
Kavya N
As an Indian, it's inspiring to see such ambitious timelines (2029 for Artemis 5). It pushes our own ISRO to aim higher and faster. Public-private partnerships seem to be the way forward for space. Jai Hind!

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