Space Blue Origin pauses space tourism flights to focus on lunar lander January 30, 20264:27 PM ET By Brendan Byrne A Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches from West Texas on March 31, 2022. Blue Origin has announced its stopping human space launches for at least two years as it focuses on helping NASA return humans to the moon. Patrick T. FallonAFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Patrick T. FallonAFP via Getty Images Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos, is suspending the short flights of its suborbital New Shepard spacecraft, which took paying customers to the edge of space and back. Space Katy Perry, Gayle King and others reflect on their brief but historic trip to space Since its first human launch in July 2021, New Shepard's space tourism flights have carried 98 people above the Kármán line the widely-accepted boundary of space about 62 miles above the Earth and safely back again in a capsule. From launch to landing in west Texas, the missions last about ten minutes. That first flight carried Bezos, his brother Mark, aviator Wally Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Since then, Blue Origin has carried paying customers, along with some celebrity passengers like William Shatner, Katy Perry, Gayle King and Michael Strahan. The company says the pause, which will last at least two years, will allow Blue Origin to dedicate more time and money to developing its human lunar landing capabilities. NASA awarded Blue Origin a 3.4 billio
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