RSS First Step (Reusable Space Ship First Step) is a New Shepardspace capsule, built and operated by American spaceflight company Blue Origin.[1] It is the third New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and the first to fly passengers. Its first flight was the NS-14 mission, which reached an altitude of 107 km (66 mi) on 14 January 2021.[2]
History
RSS First Step is the third New Shepard capsule built by Blue Origin, and the first designed to carry passengers. It flew to space for the first time on 14 January 2021, during the NS-14 spaceflight. NS-14 also served as the maiden flight of the NS4 propulsion module.[3] The following flight, NS-15, which was also flown uncrewed by First Step and NS4, tested boarding and deboarding in what Blue Origin called an "astronaut operational exercise."[4]
First Step flew Blue Origin's first crewed flight on 20 July 2021, carrying founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers to space.[5] This made Texas the fourth state to launch humans into space,[6] after Florida, California, and New Mexico. As of November 2022, it has flown five subsequent crewed spaceflights, carrying a total of 31 people into space, including one (Evan Dick) twice.
The New Shepard fleet was grounded from September 2022 until December 2023 due to a failure during the NS-23 mission. The capsule used during the mission, RSS H.G. Wells, managed to abort successfully, while the booster was destroyed. The next mission NS-24 (uncrewed) and the next crewed mission NS-25 took place following an investigation.[7]
Flights
Mission
Launch date (UTC)
Landing date (UTC)
Crew
Duration
Remarks
Outcome
NS-14
14 January 2021
14 January 2021
Uncrewed
~10 minutes
Uncrewed test flight. Maiden flight of NS4 propulsion module.
Success
NS-15
14 April 2021
14 April 2021
Uncrewed
~10 minutes
Uncrewed test flight. Passenger process test conducted. Four Blue Origin employees serve as stand-in passengers.
First crewed flight of the New Shepard vehicle and first crewed spaceflight from Texas. Carried Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers.[8]
Space tourism mission. Third crewed flight of New Shepard. First fully crewed New Shepard spaceflight. Carried Laura Shepard Churchley, the daughter of Alan Shepard, for whom the vehicle is named after, football player and Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, and four other paying passengers.[10]
Space tourism mission. Fourth crewed flight of New Shepard. Comedian Pete Davidson was originally expected to be on board, but was unable to fly due to a launch date change. Davidson was replaced by New Shepard chief architect Gary Lai. Five other paying passengers were on board.[11]
Space tourism mission. Eight crewed flight of New Shepard. Crew included Karsen Kitchen, the youngest woman to cross the Kármán line (100 km) at 21 years old.
