Today, Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will be launching its New Shephard (NS-17) spacecraft.
The NS-17 will launch with the second flight of NASA’s lunar landing technology demonstration onboard Thursday.

The NS-17 mission will lift off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site at 7:05 pm (IST). Blue Origin dedicated the launch to flying scientific and research payloads and said it would be the fourth flight for the New Shephard programme this year.

“This will be the 4th flight for the New Shepard program this year and the 8th flight for this particular vehicle, which is dedicated to flying scientific and research payloads to space and back,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

The NS-17 won’t carry any people, but the capsule will contain 18 commercial payloads, 11 of which are NASA-sponsored, as well as thousands of postcards submitted by kids via Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future.

New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall and fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo that cannot be piloted inside the spacecraft.

The capsule’s exterior comprises NASA’s Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration experiment, designed to help spacecraft land accurately on the moon and other cosmic bodies. The New Shepard was first flown in October 2020.