Blue Origin intends to shift its efforts toward advancing lunar transportation for humans, leading to a halt in space tourism flights for a minimum of two years. This decision will prevent any further New Shepard rocket missions during that period. The firm is among the selected contractors by NASA for creating crewed landing vehicles under the Artemis initiative, alongside SpaceX, with responsibilities targeting the Artemis III and Artemis V operations.
Initially, Blue Origin received a contract to construct the landing vehicle responsible for shuttling crew members from NASA's Gateway outpost to the lunar South Pole area in the Artemis V phase. However, in the previous year, NASA requested that Blue Origin develop a backup lander for Artemis III following setbacks in SpaceX's Starship testing. Artemis III represents the program's inaugural manned lunar touchdown, and the Trump government aims to achieve it prior to the conclusion of the current presidential tenure.
The New Shepard vehicle carries paying participants on brief suborbital journeys, offering several minutes of microgravity before returning to the planet's surface. Founder Jeff Bezos joined the inaugural commercial crew mission aboard New Shepard in 2021. Following that debut, the rocket has completed 37 additional trips, transporting a total of 98 individuals beyond the Karman line, among them celebrities like Katy Perry and William Shatner.