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PARIS — Blue Origin is retiring a New Shepard capsule that flew a dozen uncrewed missions over nearly eight years.
The capsule, RSS H.G. Wells, launched atop its booster at 9 a.m. Eastern Sept. 19 from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas. The NS-35 mission carried dozens of research payloads, but no people, marking Blue Origin’s seventh suborbital flight this year.
The mission was originally scheduled for Aug. 23 but scrubbed because of a problem with the booster’s avionics. A second launch attempt three days later was also called off for the same reason.
The capsule touched down under parachutes a little more than 10 minutes after liftoff, nearly three minutes after the booster made a powered landing. The capsule reached a peak altitude of 105 kilometers, a typical profile for the vehicle.
After touchdown, Blue Origin announced this would be the final flight of RSS H.G. Wells. The company said on the mission webcast that it was retiring the capsule “after a long and productive service life,” but did not elaborate.
Blue Origin first flew RSS H.G. Wells in December 2017 after previously using a capsule named RSS Jules Verne. (RSS stands for “Reusable Space Ship”.) At the time, the company referred to the capsule as “Crew Capsule 2.0,” highlighting upgrades such as larger windows for eventual crewed flights.
RSS H.G. Wells flew a total of 12 missions, all carrying cargo. Blue Origin built a new capsule, RSS First Step, for the first crewed New Shepard missions, and added RSS Kármán Line, another crewed capsule, to the fleet last year.
The RSS H.G. Wells missions included one failure, NS-23 in September 2022. A problem with the propulsion module’s engine triggered the capsule’s escape motor. While the propulsion module was destroyed, the capsule, carrying only payloads, landed safely. The same capsule flew New Shepard’s return-to-flight mission in December 2023.
On its final mission, RSS H.G. Wells carried more than 40 payloads. They included 24 student experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, as well as payloads from the University of Florida, Carthage College, Ecoatoms and Teledyne.
Blue Origin said the capsule will be used for verification testing before going on display at a location yet to be determined. The company will continue to fly payloads on its other New Shepard capsules.
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