NS-34: Blue Origin New Shepard Launches 6 Tourists To Suborbital Space

Blue Origin New Shepard launched its NS-34 mission from the company's West Texas spaceport at 1243 UTC on Aug, sending six individuals to suborbital space above the Kármán line(100 kilometers).

The passengers include crypto billionaire Justin Sun, 34, Indian-born American real estate investor and adventurer Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal; Turkish businessman and photographer Gökhan Erdem; Deborah Martorell, a journalist and meteorologist from Puerto Rico; Englishman Lionel Pitchford, who has run an orphanage in Nepal for three decades; and American entrepreneur James (J.D.) Russell.

"It was an honor to see so many nations represented on our flight today,” Blue Origin's Phil Joyce, senior vice president, New Shepard, said in a postflight statement. "The view of our fragile planet from space has a unifying effect on all who witness it, and I am always eager to see how our astronauts use this experience for the benefit of Earth."

During the 10 to 12 minutes mission, the six passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness above the Kármán line.

Sun who founded the blockchain platform Tron, anonymously won a $28 million auction in June 2021, for a seat aboard the first-ever crewed flight of New Shepard. A scheduling conflict kept him from joining that landmark flight, which took place on July 20, 2021 — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The passengers that day were Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and Dutch student Oliver Daemen.

All six NS-34 passengers were spaceflight rookies except Russell, who flew on Blue Origin's NS-28 mission in November 2024.

NS-34 was the 14th human spaceflight to date for New Shepard, which is a reusable rocket booster-crew capsule combo. The propulsion module or booster comes back to Earth for a vertical, powered touchdown like those performed by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets(though not as capable as the Falcon 9), and the crew capsule lands softly under parachutes.