Update: The Launch has been scrubbed due to bad weather. A new target launch date will be announced soon.
Blue Origin is preparing to send its next group of passengers on a brief spaceflight high above Earth.
Reaching the very edge of space, the six people on board the company’s New Shepard spacecraft will be treated to some stellar views and a few minutes of weightlessness after getting off the ground in West Texas. When they land, the space tourists will join an exclusive club of more than 60 others who have embarked on a similar expensive venture across 12 previous human spaceflights Blue Origin has provided.
As for the rest of us? Well, we’ll have to watch them have their fun from solid ground.
Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, doesn’t sell tickets for the public to watch a rocket launch in person. But areas around the launch site, including a town just south of it, may provide a few ideal places to catch the liftoff and spaceflight.
Here’s everything to know about Blue Origin’s next human spaceflight and how to potentially see it in person.
What is Blue Origin?
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, best known for founding Amazon, is the founder of the private space technology company Blue Origin.
Bezos himself even boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard for its maiden crewed voyage in July 2021, which came after the spacecraft flew on 15 flight tests beginning in 2012. For nearly four years since its first crewed mission, the New Shepard spacecraft has served as a powerful symbol of Blue Origin’s commercial spaceflight ambitions amid a growing space tourism industry.
In addition to sending space tourists on brief joy rides to the edge of space, Blue Origin has also increasingly sought to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket, which flew on its inaugural flight test in January 2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is also being developed for future spaceflights. At 320 feet tall, the spacecraft rivals SpaceX’s 400-foot Starship in size.
When is the next Blue Origin launch?
Blue Origin’s next crewed launch, known as NS-33, could get off the ground as early as 8:30 a.m. CT Saturday, June 21, the company announced.
Where are Blue Origin launches?
Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches take place from the company’s private ranch facility known as Launch Site One. The facility is located more than 140 miles east of El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Spectators gather for launches on Texas highway
Blue Origin does not provide any public viewing areas for launches at or near its facility, which is located in a remote desert.
Spectators, though, have been known to pull over on U.S. Route 54 to gather on spots to the side of the highway that offer good views of New Shepard getting off the ground.
Where else can I see a Blue Origin New Shepard take off?
Van Horn, the nearest town, is located about 30 miles south of Launch Site One in Culberson County, Texas. While the town is too far away to see the launch pad itself, it is likely the best place to see a New Shepard rocket soar into the sky.
The town’s visitors bureau advertises Blue Origin on its homepage and its brochure as an attraction, but does not list any suggested public viewing locations for launches.
However, here is a list of public places in and around Van Horn – some listed as attractions on the visitors’ bureau website – where spectators might be able to see a rocket taking off:
Who is going on the New Shepard? What to know about NS-33
Here’s a look at the passengers on the next Blue Origin New Shepard spaceflight, known as NS-33:
What happens during a New Shepard rocket launch?
Each spaceflight on a New Shepard vehicle lasts about 11 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown.
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket is topped with the gum drop-shaped crew capsule. The spacecraft operates completely autonomously, meaning no pilots are aboard.
During its ascent, the spacecraft reaches supersonic speeds surpassing 2,000 mph before the rocket booster separates from the crew capsule. At that point, those aboard the capsule become weightless as the spacecraft continues toward its highest point on its brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of space.
While experiencing a few minutes of microgravity, passengers have the opportunity to unstrap themselves from their seats to gaze out the capsule’s large windows and take in a stunning view of Earth.
Meanwhile, the rocket booster heads back to the ground while firing its engines and using its fins to slow and control its descent to land vertical about two miles from the launchpad.
The capsule itself eventually begins what Blue Origin refers to as a “stable freefall” – plummeting back to Earth as three massive parachutes deploy and the capsule makes a soft landing in the desert, sending up plumes of dust.
Contributing: Jennifer Sangalang, USA TODAY Network
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Blue Origin preps for next crewed rocket launch: What time and where to see liftoff in Texas
Reporting by Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY NETWORK / El Paso Times
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