Blue Origin donates New Shepard rocket and crew capsule to Smithsonian

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos as soon as pledged that if his firm’s first rocket to succeed in house and land vertically again on Earth survived an abort check then he would “reward it for its service” by placing it right into a museum.

Eight years later, Bezos has made good on that promise after which some.

“There isn’t any higher last touchdown pad for New Shepard than the Smithsonian,” mentioned Bezos in an announcement. “We’re honored and grateful.”

The New Shepard booster that grew to become the world’s first launch automobile to put a payload into house earlier than touchdown upright on its legs has been delivered to the Smithsonian. Additional, a mockup of Blue Origin’s crew capsule will go on show concurrently the rocket on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum, to later get replaced by by the still-flying “RSS First Step,” the spacecraft that has flown 43 folks to house (so far), together with Bezos himself.

The Blue Origin artifacts will debut to the general public in two renovated and reimagined galleries opening within the museum’s Washington, D.C. flagship constructing in 2026.

Artist rendering of Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster standing with different historic automobiles within the “missile pit” as a part of the renovated RTX Residing within the Area Age gallery on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum. The exhibit will open to the general public in 2026. (Picture credit score: Smithsonian)

“The New Shepard rocket and capsule signify present spaceflight and future exploration,” mentioned Chris Browne, director of the museum, in an announcement. “A key element of the museum’s ongoing transformation is having a wealthy assortment and presentation of what is taking place proper now, along with celebrating unbelievable feats of the previous.”

Associated: Information about Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin and Amazon founder

Propulsion Module (PM) 4-2, or “Tail 2,” as Blue Origin refers to its second New Shepard booster to be constructed and flown, might be exhibited within the museum’s “missile pit,” standing alongside a V-2, Minuteman II and a full-scale reproduction of the Jupiter-C launch automobile that put the US’ first satellite tv for pc into orbit. As a part of the brand new “RTX Residing within the Area Age” gallery, the five-time flown New Shepard rocket will assist clarify to guests the “how, why and who of the methods by which the Area Age has remodeled our lives.”

ground-level view, looking up, at a sooty white rocket standing in a white-walled museum hall — A five-time flown Blue Origin New Shepard booster (or propulsion module) is seen being put in within the “missile pit” on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum in Washington, D.C. (Picture credit score: Smithsonian through collectSPACE.com)

The New Shepard crew capsule, which may seat as much as six non-public astronauts for a 10-minute journey above the Kármán line and again, will be a part of “Futures in Area,” an exhibition themed across the “potential near- and long-term futures which will emerge with advances in house exploration know-how and enterprise.” The Air and Area Museum is utilizing the gallery to showcase creating applied sciences which might be lowering the price of entry to house, starting the period of business spaceflight and increasing robotic useful resource extraction to worlds past Earth.

“We’re excited to welcome these milestone artifacts into our assortment and show them in our upcoming galleries,” mentioned Browne.

Tail 2 didn’t launch folks, however lifted off on 4 suborbital check flights between November 2015 and June 2016. Every time, it lofted the primary New Shepard capsule, named the “RSS Jules Verne.”

Since Oct. 5, 2016, when it beat the chances and survived a check of the crew cabin’s escape system, Tail 2 has been exhibited by Blue Origin at varied firm capabilities, together with an worker vacation occasion in 2016; at MARS 2017, Amazon’s annual invite-only robotics-focused gathering; on the Area Basis’s Area Symposium in Colorado Springs; and at EAA Airventure, the Experimental Plane Affiliation’s fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in July 2017. It then “landed” within the foyer of Blue Origin’s New Glenn orbital rocket manufacturing unit at NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle in Florida in 2018, the place it has been till now.

a white space capsule sits in a scrubby desert landscape with mountains in the background — Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule “RSS First Step” as seen after flying to house and touchdown in Texas in 2022. (Picture credit score: Blue Origin)

“RSS First Step” is Blue Origin’s first and, so far, solely New Shepard capsule to launch passengers. Amongst its extra notable crew members have been “Mercury 13” member Wally Funk; “Star Trek” actor William Shatner; and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the primary American in house Alan Shepard, for whom Blue Origin named the automobile.

Blue Origin is now making ready for the primary launch of its second human-rated automobile, the “RSS Kármán Line,” named after the internationally acknowledged boundary between Earth and house. The automobile is comprised of the fourth module and fifth propulsion module to fly.

a woman walks past a white space capsule in a dark-walled museum hall — Artist rendering of the “Futures in Area” exhibition, together with Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule, as it can seem when it opens on the Nationwide Air and Area Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2026. (Picture credit score: Smithsonian)

Along with Blue Origin’s capsule and rocket donations, Bezos personally gifted the Smithsonian $200 million in 2021, partially to assist the renovation of the Nationwide Air and Area Museum and to ascertain a brand new training heart on the museum.

The Bezos Studying Middle, to be housed in a separate facility on the east facet of the museum’s plaza on the Nationwide Mall, will characteristic applications geared toward partaking college students in science, know-how, engineering, arts and arithmetic, in addition to support educators in higher utilizing the Smithsonian’s collections throughout all of its museums.