Blue Origin plans to perform a “couple dozen” test flights of its New Shepard rocket “hopefully” within the next two years before putting humans on board, according to a company official.

Blue Origin Director of Strategy and Business Development Brett Alexander said Tuesday the company has flown its capsule four times while flying its launch vehicle for three ascents and two landings. He said Blue Origin plans to offer a price for its New Shepard suborbital flights once it gets closer to flying humans.

Blue Origin launches its New Shepard rocket before landing on Nov. 23. Photo: Blue Origin.
Blue Origin launches its New Shepard rocket before landing on Nov. 23. Photo: Blue Origin.

Alexander told an audience at the 19th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington that Blue Origin’s real goal is orbital human spaceflight. To get there, he said the company is using New Shepard to test technologies Blue Origin needs from the beginning for a reusable orbital system. Alexander said the company is testing the deep throttling engine that has performed “flawlessly” on all the flights, while restarting the deep throttling engine for landing on two occasions.

Alexander said Blue Origin is also testing all the aerodynamic features, booster controllability for reentry, engine restart and soft landing. The company is also testing the software systems and plans to perform an in-flight escape test of its escape system from capsule. Alexander also said Blue Origin wants to perform 50 to 100 launch and landings with its New Shepard booster before it performs an orbital system for recovery. This, he said, will allow the company to learn a lot about the operability and reusability of the rocket without having to add a price point.

Blue Origin recently flew New Shepard to an apogee of 101.7 km and landed vertically, demonstrating reuse from a previous launch and landing. It replaced the crew capsule parachutes and pyro igniters, conducted functional and avionics checkout and made several software improvements.

With the landing, the company said it also achieved a new landing strategy that prioritizes vehicle attitude ahead of precise lateral positioning. Rather than the vehicle landing at the exact center of the pad, it now initially targets the center, but then sets down at what Blue Origin calls a position of convenience on the pad (Defense Daily, January 26).