Jeff Bezos Gives Sneak Peak Of Blue Origin’s New Shepard Capsule

VAN HORN, Texas – Blue Origin CEO, Jeff Bezos, revealed in an email sneak peak of the New Shepard capsule’s interior and exterior designs that will ferry tourists into space.

The most standout feature of the capsule is its windows. At 47.7 inches high and 28.6 inches wide, Blue Origin boasts that the New Shepard capsule will have the largest windows ever launched into space.

“Our New Shepard flight test program is focused on demonstrating the performance and robustness of the system,” Bezos wrote. In parallel, we’ve been designing the capsule interior with an eye toward precision engineering, safety, and comfort. Here’s a sneak peek.

Step inside…

Every seat’s a window seat.

The largest windows ever in space.

Gradatim Ferociter!

If you happen to be attending the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 3-6, come see this for yourself. The high-fidelity capsule mockup will be on display alongside the New Shepard reusable booster that flew to space and returned five times.

Jeff Bezos”

Named in honor of the first American in space, Alan Shepard, the New Shepard vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle will carry six astronauts to altitudes beyond 100 kilometers, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.  The vehicle is comprised of two elements—a crew capsule in which the astronauts ride and a rocket booster powered by a single American-made BE-3 liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen engine. At liftoff, the BE-3 delivers 110,000 pounds of thrust.

Following powered flight, the crew capsule separates from the booster and coasts into space, providing several minutes of weightlessness. As the crew capsule descends, it reenters the atmosphere with astronauts experiencing about 5x the force of gravity before deploying three main parachutes for landing. Meanwhile, the booster descends under guided flight to the landing pad. Just prior to landing, the booster re-ignites its BE-3 engine which slows the vehicle to 4.4 mph for a gentle, powered vertical landing, enabling vehicle reuse.

Image credits: Blue Origin