On November 22, Blue Origin successfully launched its suborbital spacecraft New Shepard from Launch Site One in West Texas, carrying six crew members, including two repeat customers and a science communicator.
The New Shepard rocket lifted off at 10:30 AM ET without the delays that had affected previous launches. The RSS First Step capsule completed its 11th flight, landing approximately 10 minutes after takeoff, with the booster landing about two and a half minutes earlier.
The NS-28 crew included Mark and Sharon Haigle, who previously flew on the NS-20 mission in March 2022. Also aboard was Emily Calandrelli, a science communicator and author, who announced on social media that she would become the 100th woman to fly to space. However, this count includes nine women who flew on Virgin Galactic suborbital flights, which reached an altitude of 80.5 km but did not cross the 100-kilometer Kármán line used by Blue Origin to define the edge of space. Blue Origin did not mention this milestone during the launch webcast.
Other crew members included Austin Litteral, who works in risk management in the finance sector and won his seat through an online platform competition; James Russell, a technology entrepreneur; and Henry Woolfond, chairman and CEO of the Canadian investment firm Bayshore Capital.
The NS-28 mission marked the ninth crewed flight of New Shepard and the third this year. It was also the second flight within a month following the uncrewed NS-27 launch on October 23, which was the first flight of the new crew capsule and booster that Blue Origin plans to use for future crewed missions, aiming to meet the growing demand from customers.