Blue Origin to launch the New Shepard test flight on Tuesday, here are the details

Jeff Bezos’ Space Exploration and technology company Blue Origin is all set to launch its New Shepard suborbital vehicle on Tuesday, October 13. The launch will be of an uncrewed test and the liftoff will be live-streamed. The New Shepard is composed of a rocket and a capsule, both of which are reusable on nature. Its booster operates in the same manner as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, as it comes down for powered vertical landings and its capsule also makes soft parachute-aided touchdowns. Read on to find out, “What time will the Blue Origin rocket launch takes place?”

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What time will the Blue Origin rocket launch take place?

A report on Blue Origin’s official website has revealed that the New Shepard is scheduled to launch from Blue Origin's West Texas location Tuesday at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT; 8:35 local Texas time). The rocket will be launched for a mission known as NS-13. The live coverage will begin 30 minutes before the liftoff.

Watch the Rocket launch live

How to watch the Blue Origin rocket launch?

The live coverage of the rocket launch will be available on Blue Origin’s website and also on space.com. Tuesday's flight will be the seventh test mission for this particular Blue Origin vehicle, and the 13th for the program overall. The programme New Shepard was originally launched in December 2019. The Tuesday flight was originally scheduled for late September 2020 but had to be scrapped due to power glitch which nixed that attempt. 

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Blue Origin’s New Shepard Mission

Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin is developing New Shepard with the purpose of carrying payloads and paying customers on brief trips to and from suborbital space. Although no passengers will be aboard the rocket ship on Tuesday, there will be a lot of payloads. One of these payloads will be NASA's Deorbit, Descent and Landing Sensor Demonstration. It is set to test landing technologies for the space agency's Artemis program. NASA’s Artemis programme aims to land two astronauts on the lunar surface in 2024. It also aims to establish a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. It is indeed a highly ambitious programme.

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Blue Origin has a strong connection with the Artemis programme. The technology company leads the "National Team," one of three private groups developing a candidate human landing system for the program. The other companies are SpaceX and Dynetics. Other NS-13 payloads which are a part of the launch include new technologies for keeping spacecraft electronics from overheating and also a system for growing plants in microgravity. The mission will also contain thousands of postcards submitted via Blue Origin's nonprofit organization, Club for the Future.

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Image Source: Blue Origin (Official Instagram)