ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Blue Origin announced Jan. 30 that it will halt flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle for at least two years as it shifts its focus to human lunar exploration.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the company said it was pausing flight of New Shepard, a vehicle that has flown 38 times since 2015, to concentrate on its lunar programs. Blue Origin said the pause would last \u201cnot less than two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision reflects Blue Origin\u2019s commitment to the nation\u2019s goal of returning to the moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
The announcement came eight days after the most recent New Shepard mission, NS-38<\/a>, which carried five paying customers and one company employee who replaced a sixth customer who became ill before launch. The flight followed a typical New Shepard profile, and Blue Origin gave no indication during the webcast that it was preparing to halt vehicle operations.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we enter 2026, we\u2019re focused on continuing to deliver transformational experiences for our customers through the proven capability and reliability of New Shepard,\u201d Phil Joyce, senior vice president for New Shepard at Blue Origin, said in a statement after that flight.<\/p>\n Four months earlier, Joyce had said Blue Origin planned to increase the number of New Shepard flights, not suspend them. Speaking at a spaceport conference in Sydney, Australia, he said the company aimed to move to an \u201capproximately weekly\u201d cadence over the next few years<\/a>, supported by additional vehicles and possible operations from locations beyond Launch Site One in West Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe demand is really strong,\u201d Joyce said at the time. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to see sales every week, every day.\u201d In its Jan. 30 statement, Blue Origin said it still has a \u201cmulti-year customer backlog\u201d for New Shepard.<\/p>\n The company did not explain how New Shepard resources would be redirected to lunar programs or whether the pause would affect jobs.<\/p>\n Accelerating lunar lander plans<\/p>\n Blue Origin is developing its Blue Moon lunar lander, including a Mark 1 uncrewed version and a Mark 2 crewed version for NASA\u2019s Human Landing System (HLS) program. The company recently completed its first Mark 1 lander, which departed its Florida assembly facility Jan. 22 and was shipped to Houston for thermal vacuum testing at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n Blue Origin has not announced a launch date for that lander. It will not fly on the next New Glenn launch, scheduled for late February. Eddie Seyffert, Blue Origin\u2019s director of civil space, said after a panel at the SpaceCom Expo here Jan. 29 that the lander will spend at least two weeks in thermal vacuum testing on a \u201cgreen-light\u201d schedule, meaning no major issues. After testing, it will be shipped back to Florida for launch preparations.<\/p>\n