Blue Origin NS-26

Blue Origin NS-26

Mission type	Crewed sub-orbital spaceflight
Mission duration	10 minutes, 8 seconds
Apogee	105.3 km (65.4 mi)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	RSS First Step
Manufacturer	Blue Origin
Crew
Crew size	6
Members	Ephraim Rabin Nicolina Elrick Eugene Grin Rob Ferl Karsen Kitchen Eiman Jahangir
Start of mission
Launch date	29 August 2024, 13:07:03 UTC
Rocket	New Shepard (NS4)
Launch site	Corn Ranch, LS-1
Contractor	Blue Origin
End of mission
Landing date	29 August 2024, 13:17:11 UTC
Landing site	Corn Ranch
Blue Origin NS-26 mission patch New Shepard crewed flights New Shepard flights

Blue Origin NS-26 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, launched on August 29, 2024, using the New Shepard rocket.

Crew

Prime crew

Position	Crew
Tourist	Nicolina Elrick First spaceflight
Scientist	Rob Ferl First spaceflight
Tourist	Eugene Grin First spaceflight
Tourist	Eiman Jahangir First spaceflight
Tourist	Karsen Kitchen First spaceflight
Tourist	Ephraim Rabin First spaceflight

Details

The flight's crew included NASA-funded scientist Rob Ferl who is a professor at the University of Florida. During the flight, he performed experiments studying the change of gene expression in one type of plant when the plant was exposed to microgravity and other different phases of flight. Professor Ferl was the first NASA-funded researcher flying aboard New Shepard (or indeed aboard any of the commercial suborbital space vehicles of the 21st century). His flight and experiments were funded by NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

Nicolina Elrick, who was still a British citizen at the time of her flight, became the first ethnic Singaporean to reach space, in addition to bringing along a Flag of Singapore. She is a permanent resident of Singapore (Singaporean PR) and intends to become a Singapore citizen.

Eiman Jahangir's flight was sponsored by the cryptocurrency spaceflight accelerator organization MoonDAO.

Karsen Kitchen became the youngest woman and youngest American to cross the Kármán line (100 km) at 21 years old.