Second crewed mission of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to lift off on October 12

Businessman billionaire Jeff Bezos' aerospace venture Blue Origin announced the launch date of its second human mission along with the names of two of the four crew members of spacecraft New Shepard 18 (NS18).

The 18th flight of New Shepard (hence, the name NS18) is set to lift off on October 12 with Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, Vice-Chair, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Dassault Systèmes and co-founder, Medidata, along with two others, whose names are yet to be announced.

“This is a fulfillment of my greatest childhood dream,” Boshuizen said. “More importantly, though, I see this flight as an opportunity to inspire students to pursue careers in STEM and catalyse the next generation of space explorers. After all, our future of life in space is in their very capable hands.”

Liftoff is currently targeted for 8:30 am CDT / 13:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. This flight follows Blue Origin’s successful first human flight on July 20 which included Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and Blue Origin’s first customer, Oliver Daemen.

“I’ve spent my entire career working to extend people’s lives. However, with limited materials and energy on Earth, extending our reach into space can help humanity continue to thrive,” Vries said in a statement.