RSS Kármán Line
Blue Origin New Shepard capsule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
RSS Kármán Line (Reusable Space Ship Kármán Line) is a New Shepard space capsule, built and operated by American spaceflight company Blue Origin.[1] It is the fourth New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and the second to fly passengers, after RSS First Step. The capsule's first uncrewed flight was the NS-27 mission on 23 October 2024, which was also the maiden flight of New Shepard booster NS5.[2]
| RSS Kármán Line | |
|---|---|
| Type | Space capsule |
| Class | New Shepard crew capsule |
| Owner | Blue Origin |
| Manufacturer | Blue Origin |
| Specifications | |
| Rocket | New Shepard |
| History | |
| Location | Van Horn, Texas |
| First flight |
|
| Last flight |
|
| Flights | 4 |
| New Shepard crew capsules | |
History
RSS Kármán Line, the fourth New Shepard capsule, was built by Blue Origin to "better meet growing customer demand" for New Shepard flights.[1] The spacecraft is named after the Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) and the conventional definition of the edge of space, which the capsule crosses at the apogee of its sub-orbital spaceflight,[3] itself named after Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist Theodore von Kármán. The capsule first flew on the uncrewed NS-27 verification mission, which launched on 23 October 2024 carrying twelve customer payloads, after issues pushed back the launch from 7 October 2024.[4][5]
The first crewed flight of the capsule was NS-31, which was the first all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova's solo 1963 flight on Vostok 6.[6]
Flights
| Mission | Launch date (UTC) | Landing date (UTC) | Crew | Duration | Remarks | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NS-27 | 23 October 2024 | 23 October 2024 | Uncrewed | ~10 minutes | Uncrewed test flight. Maiden flight of NS5 propulsion module. | Success |
| NS-31 | 14 April 2025 | 14 April 2025 |  Aisha Bowe,  Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, Lauren Sánchez |
~10 minutes , 21 seconds | First crewed flight. First all female crew since Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. | Success |
| NS-33 | 29 June 2025, 14:40 | 29 June 2025, 14:50 | Allie Kuehner, Carl Kuehner, Leland Larson, Freddie Rescigno, Jr.,  Owolabi Salis, James (Jim) Sitkin |
10 minutes, 14 seconds | Space tourism mission. 13th crewed flight of New Shepard. | Success |
| NS-37 | 20 December 2025, 14:15 | 20 December 2025, 14:25 |  Michaela "Michi" Benthaus, Joey Hyde, Hans Koenigsmann, Neal Milch,  Adonis Pouroulis, Jason Stansell |
10 minutes, 26 seconds | Space tourism mission. 16th crewed flight of New Shepard. | Success |
