Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin to launch its fifth tourist flight to space on Saturday

The Blue Origin flight was originally scheduled to fly on May 20, but was cancelled as it faced some problems with the vehicle. The Jeff Bezos-owned company, however, did not disclose further details. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Jeff Bezos's space venture Blue Origin is going to launch its fifth tourist flight to space on June 4. The spacecraft will carry six passengers.

The New Shepard (NS-21) will lift off from Launch Site One at 8 am (6:30 pm IST), Blue Origin said in a statement.

The flight was originally scheduled to fly on May 20, but was cancelled as it faced some problems with the vehicle.  The company, however, did not disclose further details.

"During our final vehicle check-outs, we observed one of New Shepard's back-up systems was not meeting our expectations for performance," Blue Origin had stated. "In an abundance of caution, we will be delaying the NS-21 launch originally scheduled for May 20."

The NS-21 is expected to fly six customer astronauts, news agency IANS reported. The crew includes investor and NS-19 Astronaut Evan Dick; electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta; business jet pilot and Action Aviation Chairman Hamish Harding; civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha; adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson; and explorer and co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo, Commander, USN (Ret.)

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Blue Origin's New Shepard is a reusable rocket-capsule combo that sends people and payloads on brief trips to space. The trip lasts for about 11 minutes and passengers get to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curve of Earth against the darkness of outer space, Space reported.

NS-21 is the 21st spaceflight for New Shepard and is the fifth mission with a crew following flights in July, October and December of 2021 and March 31.