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December 13th, 2017
New Shepard liftoff.
Credit: Blue Orign/Screenshot
Blue Origin’s New Shepard flew again for the seventh time December 12 from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site.
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Known as Mission 7 (M7), the flight featured the next-generation booster and the first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0.
New Shepard landing.
Credit: Blue Orign/Screenshot
Crew Capsule 2.0 features large windows, measuring 2.4 feet wide, 3.6 feet tall.
Onboard payloads
M7 also included 12 commercial, research and education payloads onboard.
Crew Capsule 2.0 reached an apogee of 322,405 feet AGL/326,075 feet MSL (98.27 kilometers AGL/99.39 kilometers MSL).
Capsule landing.
Credit: Blue Orign/Screenshot
The booster reached an apogee of 322,032 feet AGL/325,702 feet MSL (98.16 kilometers AGL/99.27 kilometers MSL).
NanoRacks payload integration
It was the third flight in which NanoRacks has managed customer payload integration.
Notably, one full Blue Origin payload locker in which NanoRacks integrated on this mission is for Orbital Medicine, in collaboration with Purdue University Aerospace Engineering. Their experiment, “Thoracic PARG” is demonstrating a new medical technology for managing collapsed lungs in microgravity or other extreme environments, according to a NanoRacks press statement.
T-cells, genes
In a statement from Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus, one experiment carried within the capsule assessed how microgravity impacts the cellular processes of T-cells or T-lymphocytes, which develop from stem cells in the bone marrow and are key to the immune system.
The second Embry-Riddle payload was designed to study how microgravity affects genes that play a role in tumor growth.
Embry-Riddle’s two experiments were part of 12 commercial, research and educational payloads onboard the first flight of Crew Capsule 2.0.
Blue Origin’s chief rocketeer, Jeff Bezos, (right) discusses capsule payloads with team members.
Credit: Blue Origin
Capsule closeup.
Credit: Blue Origin
“Mannequin Skywalker” instrumented test dummy made the suborbital journey.
Credit: Blue Origin
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