Watch Blue Origin to launch 6 people to suborbital space today on NS-33 spaceflight

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Rescheduled from last Sunday's attempt called off due to poor local conditions in West Texas.

UPDATE for 11 a.m. ET: Blue Origin has successfully launched 6 passengers to space an back on NS-33. See our full wrap story on the launch, photos and video.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to launch six people to suborbital space Sunday, after a round of weather delays last weekend.

The mission — known as NS-33, because it will be the 33rd overall flight of the company's New Shepard vehicle — was originally scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas site on Saturday (June 21) morning. But Mother Nature didn't cooperate; high winds forced a scrub. The launch was then targeted for Sunday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT; 7:30 a.m. local Texas time). But the weather didn't cooperate again.

Now, Blue Origin has set a new liftoff target for Sunday, June 29, at 10:38 a.m. EDT (1438 GMT; 9:38 a.m. local Texas time).

aerial view of a rocket standing on its launch pad in Texas

(Image credit: Blue Origin)

New Shepard is an autonomous, fully reusable vehicle that consists of a first-stage booster and a crew capsule. Its flights last 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown; passengers get to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see Earth against the blackness of space.

The people going up on the NS-33 mission are Allie and Carl Kuehner, a husband and wife who are both into conservation and exploration; philanthropist and beekeeper Leland Larson; entrepreneur Freddie Rescigno, Jr.; lawyer and author Owolabi Salis; and retired attorney Jim Sitkin.

You can learn more about each of them in our NS-33 crew reveal story.

headshots of six people — five men and one woman — with their names beneath them.

The six passengers on Blue Origin's upcoming NS-33 suborbital spaceflight. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
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— Facts about New Shepard, Blue Origin's rocket for space tourism

— Katy Perry and Gayle King launch to space with 4 others on historic all-female Blue Origin rocket flight

— Blue Origin launches Michael Strahan and crew of 5 on record-setting suborbital spaceflight

NS-33 will be Blue Origin's 13th human spaceflight mission overall and its fourth of 2025 so far. (Most of the company's flights have been uncrewed research missions.)

The company first launched people to the final frontier on July 20, 2021, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Bezos and his brother Mark went up on that landmark New Shepard flight, along with aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch student Oliver Daemen.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:00 a.m. EDT on June 28 with the new launch date announced by Blue Origin.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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