Blue Origin New Shepard Rocket Takes NASA Payload to Space, Humans Come Next

On board the New Shepard mission 10, in its brief foray into space, were eight NASA-backed experiments, devised by students, scientists and entrepreneurs.

The goal of the mission was to see how these experiments unfold during a few minutes of zero G. None of them remained in orbit, as for now Blue Origin is not in the business of orbital deliveries.

The New Shepard, which takes its name after the first American astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, is for the moment a test rocket for both a future version of it capable of carrying humans, and the upcoming New Glenn rocket, named after the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, John Glenn.

New Shepard is a vertical take-off vertical landing rocket that departs from a launch pad. A few short minutes later, the booster engine cuts off, separates from the capsule and heads back to the landing pad.

Eventually, the capsule will be capable of carrying humans into space as well. Shortly after nailing this tenth launch, the Jeff Bezos-founded company announced plans to send people up above the Earth, possibly as soon as this year.

"So exciting to think that human spaceflight is just around the corner,” said during the live broadcast of Wednesday's rocket launch Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin director of sales.

"We're aiming for the end of this year, by the end of this year, but as we have said before, we are not in a rush. We want to take our time, we want to do this right."