--- title: "Blue Origin’s New Shepard Pulls Off Spectacular Test Launch" description: "Liftoff Blue Origin just made one big step closer to sending astronauts into space. The space tourism company led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos successfully launched its New Shepard rocket at its testing site in Texas today. Mannequin Skywalker The rocket, with dummy “Mannequin Skywalker” on board, blasted off to an apogee of 350,827 feet, […]" date: "2021-01-14" modified: "2021-01-14" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/blue-origin-new-shepard-spectacular-launch" categories: - "Blue Origin" - "Space" tags: - "blue origin" - "new glenn" - "new shepard" - "the digest" --- # Blue Origin’s New Shepard Pulls Off Spectacular Test Launch ![Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket at its testing site in Texas today, including an autonomous booster landing.]() *\Image: Blue Origin\* ## Liftoff! Blue Origin just made a major step toward sending astronauts into space. The space exploration company, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, just successfully launched its New Shepard rocket at its testing site in Texas today. While it was the 13th successful launch of the rocket, it was the maiden flight of the company's NS-4, an upgraded crew capsule housing six seats, display panels, and temperature controls — and with a human-sized dummy on board, collecting data. https://youtu.be/g9oTZu2HP8U ## Mannequin Skywalker The rocket, with dummy "Mannequin Skywalker" occupying one of its six seats, blasted off to an apogee of 350,827 feet, well above the Karman line, the generally agreed-upon edge of space. Several minutes after liftoff, the rocket's booster made a successful landing, touching down on four extended legs, reminiscent of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster. The capsule, designed to one day carry tourists into space, made a gentler return, aided by three large parachutes. The New Shepard rocket has been long in the making. The rocket has entered its seventh year of uncrewed flight testing with crewed flights not expected to occur before 2022. Its biggest competitor, SpaceX, has had far more luck, delivering its first astronauts to space in August 2020. ## Next Stop: Moon While iterative in certain respects, today's launch lays the groundwork for Blue Origin's far more ambitious endeavor: landing astronauts on the Moon. New Shepard used the company's BE-3 liquid hydrogen and oxygen fueled rocket engine. Two vacuum optimized versions of these engines will carry Blue Origin's orbital launch vehicle New Glenn, which is set to make its debut as early as this year, as [*NASASpaceflight* reports](). The company's BE-7 engine, which is [currently being tested](), uses the same fuel as BE-3 and is designed to be used on Blue Origin's [Blue Moon lunar lander](). The company [delivered a full-scale prototype]() to NASA in August. **READ MORE:** [Watch Live: Blue Origin Launches ‘Mannequin Skywalker’ to Suborbital Space]() \[*Gizmodo*\] **More on Blue Origin:** *[Blue Origin Engineers Deliver Full-Scale Prototype Moon Lander to NASA]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()