Blue Origin pauses New Shepard flights for 2 years to give attention to lunar targets, together with its $3.4 billion Blue Moon lander and New Glenn rocket for NASA’s Artemis.
The New Shepard 38 crew poses outdoors the crew capsule after their Jan. 22 area flight. Blue Origin introduced eight days later that they’re briefly pausing New Shepard flights to focus their efforts on lunar spaceflight. Credit score: Blue Origin
Blue Origin introduced on Jan. 30, 2026, that it’ll pause New Shepard flights for not less than two years. The corporate, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is as a substitute redirecting sources to lunar spaceflight.
New Shepard is a reusable spaceflight system designed for vertical landings. It has accomplished 38 flights and carried 98 folks above the Kármán line — the internationally acknowledged boundary of area at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers). New Shepard has additionally launched over 200 analysis payloads for NASA and different organizations.
This system is generally identified for carrying high-profile passengers to area. Ed Dwight turned the oldest particular person to succeed in area in the course of the NS-25 mission in Might 2024 at age 90. He surpassed the report beforehand held by actor William Shatner, who flew on the NS-18 mission in October 2021. And in April 2025, pop star Katy Perry flew on the NS-31 mission — a flight that featured the primary all-female crew and included broadcast journalist Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez, now Bezos’ spouse. Seats have previously sold for as much as $28 million at public sale, and the corporate requires a $150,000 refundable deposit to start the seat reservation course of.
Days after Blue Origin’s assertion, Elon Musk introduced the same pivot for SpaceX. In a post to X, Musk shared that his firm has shifted its focus from Mars colonization to constructing a “self-growing metropolis” on the Moon, focusing on an uncrewed touchdown by 2027. Musk cited the logistical benefits of the Moon’s proximity — permitting for journeys each 10 days versus 26-month launch home windows for Mars — as a consider accelerating growth.
Lunar pivot
Blue Origin says that pausing New Shepard will enable it to shift focus to its lunar capabilities. The New Glenn heavy-lift rocket is one piece of this puzzle. This two-stage orbital launch automobile stands 320 toes (98 meters) tall with a 23-foot (7-meter) payload fairing, permitting it to hold twice the quantity of the SpaceX Falcon 9’s 17-foot (5.2-meter) fairing. New Glenn’s absolutely reusable first stage is powered by seven BE-4 engines and fueled by a mix of liquified pure gasoline and liquid oxygen. The second stage is powered by two BE-3U engines, which use a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
New Glenn efficiently reached orbit on its first launch (NG-1) in January 2025, although Blue Origin did not get better the booster. On Nov. 13, 2025, the second mission (NG-2) efficiently deployed NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft and recovered the first-stage booster on the ship Jacklyn.
In 2023, NASA chosen Blue Origin for a $3.4 billion contract to develop the Blue Moon lander because the second human touchdown system supplier for the Artemis program. NASA had beforehand contracted SpaceX’s Starship Human Touchdown System (HLS) for the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions. Blue Origin will present the lander for Artemis 5 and subsequent expeditions.
In October, Sean Duffy, serving as interim NASA administrator, introduced the reopening of the Artemis 3 HLS contract. Duffy cited considerations that SpaceX was “behind” on growth milestones. This announcement led each Blue Origin and SpaceX to submit revised touchdown architectures geared toward accelerating the mission’s timeline. Present NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has made no point out of whether or not the contract stays open.
RELATED: How Artemis will land people on the Moon
Blue Origin is creating two variations of the lander. The Mark 1 (MK1) is a robotic spacecraft designed to ship as much as 3.3 tons of cargo to the lunar floor. The Mark 2 (MK2) is a bigger lander designed for the Artemis 5 mission in 2029. Not like the MK1, the MK2 would require in-space refueling — a course of that has not but been demonstrated. It’s designed to hold as much as 4 astronauts to the moon’s floor and return them to lunar orbit. Each landers might be launched on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
If all goes in accordance with plan for Artemis 5, NASA’s SLS rocket will launch 4 astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft no sooner than 2029. After docking with the Gateway station (which is able to tentatively launch in 2027), two astronauts will switch to the Blue Moon MK2 for a weeklong keep on the Moon’s South Pole.
