The crew for the next Blue Origin spaceflight – which includes Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency TRON – could get off the ground in early August.
Watch zero gravity inside Blue Origin space flight with Katy Perry
Katy Perry, Gayle King and four other women experienced zero gravity as they reached the edge of space on Blue Origin.
- Blue Origin made news earlier in 2025 when it selected some big names, including pop star Katy Perry and broadcast journalist Gayle King, to take part in an all-women spaceflight.
- The upcoming mission will be the New Shepard’s third human spaceflight since that headline-grabbing launch.
- The missions use the New Shepard rocket to send crews of 6 people more than 60 miles high to the edge of space, where they experience weightlessness and spectacular views of West Texas.
A cryptocurrency billionaire and five others are set to become the latest passengers to board a Blue Origin spacecraft for a brief flight high above Earth’s atmosphere.
Blue Origin, the spaceflight company owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has announced that it is targeting an early August liftoff for its next human spaceflight. The missions use the company’s New Shepard rocket to send crews of six people more than 60 miles high to the edge of space, where they are treated to fleeting moments of weightlessness and spectacular views over West Texas.
Blue Origin made news earlier in 2025 when it selected some big names, including pop star Katy Perry and broadcast journalist Gayle King, to take part in an all-women spaceflight in April. The upcoming mission will be the New Shepard’s third human spaceflight since that headline-grabbing launch.
The crew for the mission – which includes Justin Sun, a Chinese businessman who made his fortune in cryptocurrency – was previously announced July 21. Now, Blue Origin has revealed the target launch date.
Here’s everything to know about the upcoming mission, which would be New Shepard’s 14th human spaceflight and 34th overall.
Where, when is the next Blue Origin rocket launch?
Blue Origin’s next crewed launch, known as NS-34, could get off the ground as early as 7:30 a.m. CT (8:30 a.m. ET) Sunday, Aug. 3, the company announced.
Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches take place from the company’s private ranch facility known as Launch Site One – located more than 140 miles east of El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Who is the crew of the next Blue Origin mission?
When the New Shepard gets off the ground again, the six people selected to board it will join 70 others who have flown on the spacecraft across 13 previous human spaceflights.
Here’s a look at the passengers of a mission known as NS-34:
- Arvi Singh Bahal, a real estate investor born in India and now a citizen of the U.S.
- Gökhan Erdem, a Turkish businessman
- Deborah Martorell, an award-winning Puerto Rican meteorologist and journalist
- Lionel Pitchford, a philanthropist from England who spent decades in Spain working as a teacher, translator and tour guide
- James (J.D.) Russell, an entrepreneur who founded Alpha Funds, a technology-focused venture capital company, as well as Alpha Aerospace, an aerospace consultant
- H.E. Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto billionaire and businessman who founded TRON
Does Jeff Bezos own Blue Origin? What to know
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, best known for founding Amazon, is the founder of the private space technology company Blue Origin.
Bezos himself even boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard for its maiden crewed voyage in July 2021, which came after the spacecraft flew on 15 flight tests beginning in 2012. For nearly four years since its first crewed mission, the New Shepard spacecraft has served as a powerful symbol of Blue Origin’s commercial spaceflight ambitions amid a growing space tourism industry.
In addition to sending space tourists on brief joy rides to the edge of space, Blue Origin has also increasingly sought to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for NASA’s business, as well as the business of other private companies.
Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket, which flew on its inaugural flight test in January 2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is also due to launch again as early as August from Florida. At 320 feet tall, the spacecraft rivals SpaceX’s 400-foot Starship in size.
What happens during a New Shepard spaceflight?
Each spaceflight on a New Shepard vehicle lasts about 11 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown.
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the 60-foot-tall New Shepard rocket is topped with the gum drop-shaped crew capsule. The spacecraft operates completely autonomously, meaning no pilots are aboard.
During its ascent, the spacecraft reaches supersonic speeds surpassing 2,000 mph before the rocket booster separates from the crew capsule. At that point, those aboard the capsule become weightless as the spacecraft continues toward its highest point on its brief voyage above the Kármán Line – the 62-mile-high internationally recognized boundary of space.
While experiencing a few minutes of microgravity, passengers have the opportunity to unstrap themselves from their seats to gaze out the capsule’s large windows and take in a stunning view of Earth.
Meanwhile, the rocket booster heads back to the ground while firing its engines and using its fins to slow and control its descent to land vertical about two miles from the launchpad.
The capsule itself eventually begins what Blue Origin refers to as a “stable freefall” – plummeting back to Earth as three massive parachutes deploy and the capsule makes a soft landing in the desert, sending up plumes of dust.
How much does it cost to ride Blue Origin?
If you have dreams of blasting off to orbit on a Blue Origin spacecraft, you likely need to either have very deep pockets or a name that’s recognizable enough to get you invited as an honored guest.
Though Blue Origin does not publicly list prices on its website, a form to reserve a seat requires customers to agree to a $150,000 deposit alone.
And if the price of the first ticket sold for a Blue Origin spaceflight in 2021 is any indicator, seats likely cost in the millions of dollars. The $28 million ticket price was the winning bid in an auction that included 7,600 people registered to bid from 159 countries.
However, a select few passengers over the years have had their seats aboard New Shepard paid through grants and other funding methods from large institutions.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com