Blue Origin NS-31 mission: What time will the rocket launch and how long will it stay in space?
A 59-foot-tall suborbital spacecraft called the New Shepard rocket is set to carry the crew to the Kármán line.
As many as six passengers are preparing to launch into space on a Blue Origin rocket on Monday morning, April 14 – Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez. A 59-foot-tall suborbital spacecraft called the New Shepard rocket is set to carry the crew to the Kármán line.
The vehicle on the NS-31 mission will lift off at Launch Site One on Corn Ranch, which is a private ranch in rural West Texas. The location, over 140 miles east of El Paso, is the same that was used in every other Blue Origin launch.
What time will Blue Origin launch and how long will it stay in space?
The mission will blast off Monday, April 14, at 9:30 am ET. The flight is expected to last about 10 minutes.
NBC’s Priscilla Thompson spoke about the upcoming flight during a segment on Sunday TODAY, saying, “The 11-minute ride won’t achieve orbit, but it will send the crew soaring past the Kármán Line, the unofficial boundary of space.” She added that the journey will be about four minutes, and the passengers are expected to experience “weightlessness.”
Blue Origin is going to air a YouTube video stream from 8 am ET, and will also provide a livestream on its website. The launch will be broadcast on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+ too.
This trip is going to be the first with an all-female crew since 1963. That was the year when Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel to space, Blue Origin says. She finished the mission solo.
Blue Origin has flown 30 missions, with 10 of them having carried as many as 52 people to the edge of space. The spacecraft's first crewed flight, NS-16, had Jeff Bozos as a passenger in 2021. The flight followed a whopping 15 test flights, according to USA Today.
