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Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight

New Shepard Suborbital Rocket

Designed, built, and operated by Blue Origin, the New Shepard is a space vehicle designed to transport both passengers and scientific payloads into space. The vehicle is comprised of a rocket and a capsule, with both components being reusable.

The capsule and rocket separate after engine cut-off and land separately. The rocket, free falling most of the way, re-lights its engine to reduce velocity as it approaches the ground and makes a vertical landing on deployable landing gear.

The capsule separates from the rocket at high altitude and descends under parachutes. An instant before landing, retro-rockets fire to further reduce the capsules touchdown speed.

More information can be found at Blue Origin's website.

New Shepard Photos

New Shepard Suborbital Rocket on display at EAA Airventure. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2017)

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New Shepard rocket closeup. New Shepard rocket closeup. New Shepard rocket closeup. New Shepard rocket closeup. New Shepard rocket closeup.

WhiteKnightTwo

WhiteKnightTwo Visits EAA Airventure 2009

Build by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, the twin fuselage, four engine, all carbon composite aircraft is designed to lift SpaceShipTwo to its launch altitude. SpaceShipTwo, scheduled to start flight testing later this year, will conduct passenger flights into space.(Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009)

Arrival and Demonstration Flight

WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo demonstration at Oshkosh

WhiteKnightTwo Taxies After Flight

WhiteKnightTwo ground taxi at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo ground taxi at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo ground taxi at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo ground taxi at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo ground taxi at Oshkosh

On Display

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Pan From Rear

WhiteKnightTwo walk around at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo walk around at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo walk around at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo walk around at Oshkosh WhiteKnightTwo walk around at Oshkosh

Spaceship 1 and White Knight

Spaceship 1, the worlds first privately funded crewed spacecraft, made three flights over 100km altitude during 2004. These photos were taken at EAA Airventure in 2005. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2005)

Spaceship 1 and White Knight port side view White Knight left side view Spaceship 1 and White Knight port side view closeup White Knight landing gear White Knight White Knight tail Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft view Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft right view Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft port view Spaceship 1 and White Knight front view Spaceship 1 aft view Spaceship 1 aft closeup Spaceship 1 White Knight front closeup Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft view Spaceship 1 and White Knight right side view Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft view Spaceship 1 Spaceship 1 and White Knight aft view

Spaceship 1

Spaceship 1 on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2007)

Spaceship 1 at Smithsonian Museum Spaceship 1 at Smithsonian Museum
Creative Commons License Images by Richard Kruse are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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