Description
In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Afterwards, a decade later Alan Shepard walked on the moon. He carved the frontiers of space exploration so that later we could pave the path. It’s with that legacy in mind that the New Shepard came to be. Above all, the Estes New Shepard aims to bring the excitement of space exploration accessible to everyone.
The main features of Blue Origin New Shepard:
- The Blue Origin New Shepard stands 59 ft. tall, fires its BE-3 engine for 110 seconds producing 110,000 lbs of thrust. It's marked by name, and with the iconic Blue Origin feather across the airframe.
- The vehicle ascends through the clouds, more than 60 miles above the ground, and into the vacuum of space. Here, the passengers experience weightlessness.
- The capsule, containing the newly minted astronauts, then falls through the atmosphere under parachutes and touches down lightly on a cloud of dust.
- The boosters that kick up the cloud allow the capsule to touch down extremely lightly, at a mile an hour or less. The Estes New Shepard is a 1/66th scale model of the Blue Origin New Shepard launch vehicle.
Finally, it flies to altitude on a C5-3 or C6-3, and is capable of as much as 400 ft. It too, after deploying the capsule, falls through the atmosphere under a large parachute to gently touch down. Like the Blue Origin New Shepard, you can fly the Estes New Shepard again and again.
