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New Shepard is a reusable suborbital crew rated launch system that is being developed by Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin. It is being developed and produced to be a means to send tourists to sub-orbit and is by Amazon.com founder and businessman Jeff Bezos and Rob Meyerson. The system’s name refers to Alan Shepard, the first U.S. astronaut in space. New Shepard’s suborbital flight trajectory is hoped to be similar to that Shepard encountered in 1961. Testing on the system began in 2006, with full-scale testing starting nine years later in 2015 (of the propulsion module and capsule itself). It is hoped that passengers could begin flying on New Shepard as early as 2018. Photos courtesy: Mark Usciak
