A Historic Gift from Jeff Bezos to the Smithsonian: The New Shepard Rocket and Capsule
22nd Oct 2024Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos donated the New Shepard rocket and crew capsule to be exhibited in two new galleries of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in 2026. It maintains the world’s largest and most significant collection of aviation and space artifacts.
“There is no better final landing pad for New Shepard than the Smithsonian,” said Bezos.
Why Is New Shepard So Special for the Smithsonian Exhibit?
The New Shepard booster made history as the world’s first reusable launch vehicle to successfully make a soft landing on the Earth.
Comprised of a booster rocket and a crew capsule, New Shepard is designed to carry up to six passengers, cargo, or a mix of both. The booster rocket sends the capsule above the Kármán line, where passengers and cargo can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth. After separation, the booster lands vertically on a landing pad 3.2 km north of the launch pad. the booster lands vertically just 3.2 km from the launch site. Since its debut in 2015, New Shepard has completed 26 successful launches and landings, with only one partial success and a single failure (in September 2022). The next uncrewed suborbital launch is planned for 23 October 2024.
New Shepard Becomes Part of Smithsonian’s Expanding Space Legacy
The New Shepard booster has already been delivered to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, with a mockup of Blue Origin’s crew capsule to follow. Eventually, the mockup will be replaced by the “RSS First Step,” the space capsule that took 43 people to the edge of space, including Jeff Bezos and his brother in July 2021.
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These Blue Origin artifacts will be featured in two new galleries – “RTX Living in the Space Age” and “Futures in Space.” Both are part of the museum’s massive renovation, which began in 2018. While the first eight galleries, along with the planetarium, museum store, and Mars Café, opened in October 2022, the remaining spaces will be completed by 2026.
“Living in the Space Age”
The New Shepard booster or “Tail 2,” as Blue Origin developers refers to it, will be displayed in a new “RTX Living in the Space Age” gallery of the National Air and Space Museum. It will be placed in the “missile pit,” standing alongside a V-2, Minuteman II and a full-scale replica of the Jupiter-C launch vehicle, which launched the United States’ first satellite into orbit. This new gallery will offer insight into space technologies and infrastructure that are largely invisible to the public yet have profoundly transformed our lives. The exhibition will trace the evolution of space exploration, covering topics from the dawn of the Space Age in the mid-20th century to the present, while also providing a forward-looking perspective on future discoveries.
“Futures in Space”
New Shepard crew capsule will become a part of the “Futures in Space” exhibition. aims to explore the potential futures that may emerge with innovations in space exploration technology and industry. The gallery will showcase emerging technologies that are making space exploration more accessible, offering new opportunities for space tourism and sustaining human life in new environments.
“The New Shepard rocket and capsule represent current spaceflight and future exploration,” said Chris Browne, director of the museum. This is the key reason why these Blue Origin artefacts will become part of the ongoing transformation of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
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