On Monday, December 18, 2017, at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, Blue Origin Director of Safety and Mission Assurance and retired astronaut, Jeff Ashby, stated that in roughly a year, the company will begin flying manned missions on their New Shepard spacecraft. This follows a successful test of the craft on the 12th of this month. It was the first flight in more than a year, and it featured a new propulsion system module and newly added large windows to the crew module. Aboard were 12 science experiments and “Mannequin Spacewalker,” a test dummy used for measuring the impacts of flight on the human body. It was also the first commercial mission Blue Origin had flown, carrying “cargo for hire” from the government and the private sector, following receipt of the appropriate FAA permit in August. Blue Origin intends to carry trained astronauts, as well as space tourists, when it begins flying manned missions.
