Engineering:Blue Origin NS-15

Short description: 2021 American uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight

Blue Origin NS-15

Mission type	Uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight
Mission duration	10 minutes, 10 seconds
Apogee	107.05 km (66.52 mi)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	RSS First Step
Manufacturer	Blue Origin
Start of mission
Launch date	14 April 2021
Rocket	New Shepard (NS3)
Launch site	Corn Ranch, LS-1
Contractor	Blue Origin
End of mission
Landing date	14 April 2021
Landing site	Corn Ranch
New Shepard flights

Blue Origin NS-15 was an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight mission of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, which launched on 14 April 2021. It was New Shepards 2nd flight in 2021 and Blue Origin's 15th overall flight to go into space.

Flight

The vehicle lifted off at 16:50 UTC on 14 April 2021, from Launch Site 1 (LS-1) at Blue Origins' Corn Ranch launch site in Texas , United States. Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) occurred at T+2 minutes 23 seconds into the flight. At T+2:44, the capsule separated from the booster, from which point it began to experience Zero G, until T+5:35, giving the payloads 2 minutes and 51 seconds of Zero G for data gathering. RSS First Step passed the Karman Line at T+3 minutes 32 seconds after launch, until T+4:41, spending a total of 1 minute, 9 seconds in space. The capsule reached apogee at T+4:07, reaching an altitude of 351,221 feet (107,052 meters), while the booster reached an apogee of 350,840 feet (106,936 meters). The booster deployed its fins during descent, before reigniting its single BE-3 engine, coming to a near-hover and touching down at T+7 minutes 24 seconds into the flight on Blue Origin's North Landing Pad, ~3.3 km (~2 miles) away from the launch site. At 12:00:10 CST (17:00:10 UTC) the crew capsule landed at the Corn Ranch site, 10 minutes, 10 seconds after liftoff. The booster supporting this mission was New Shepard Booster 3 (NS3), a booster specifically dedicated to uncrewed cargo missions. This was its 7th total flight with a 183-day turnaround time, it was paired with the RSS First Step crew capsule on top for this flight.

Payload

Unlike other uncrewed New Shepard flights, NS-15 did not carry science experiments as cargo, as the flight was a crew flight exercise. The only payloads on board were a mannequin, dubbed "Mannequin Skywalker", which was outfitted with various sensors to monitor the environment inside the crew capsule and the effects on the body for crewed missions. The other payload was 25,000 postcards from around the world as part of the "Postcards to Space" program developed by Club for the Future, a Blue Origin non-profit company.