Blue Origin announced the postponement of the NS-21 mission , with six crew members on board.
Blue Origin ‘s fifth space tourism flight , scheduled for Friday with six passengers, will be postponed after technical problems were detected in the final checks of the New Shepard rocket , the company announced on Wednesday.
“During our final vehicle checks, we noted that one of the New Shepard’s security systems was not working as expected,” billionaire Jeff Bezos’ company said in a statement, without elaborating. “Out of an abundance of caution, we will delay takeoff.”
A new date for the launch, scheduled to take place from West Texas, has not yet been announced. The crew includes engineer Katya Echazarreta, the first woman born in Mexico to go into space.
A US citizen, Echazarreta, who will also become the youngest to cross the final border, was sponsored by the “Space for Humanity” program, aimed at democratizing access to space.
The price that space tourists pay for the trip, which only lasts about ten minutes, is unknown.
Bezos himself took part in the first manned flight of the New Shepard in July 2021. Since then, the rocket has also carried actor William Shatner, the iconic Captain Kirk from the Star Trek series.