Blue Origin pauses trips on rocket that carried Jeff Bezos, Katy Perry and William Shatner to space

By Jackie Wattles, CNN

(CNN) — Blue Origin announced Friday that it is pausing flights aboard its suborbital space tourism rocket New Shepard. Since 2021, New Shepard has provided 10-minute flights to the edge of space for wealthy thrill seekers, celebrities and special guests.

The company, founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, said in a Friday statement that it’s halting the joyrides for at least two years in order to “shift resources to further accelerate development of the company’s human lunar capabilities.”

Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX each hold a NASA contract to develop a vehicle capable of ferrying astronauts from deep space to the lunar surface.

As of now, SpaceX is slated to supply the lander that will complete NASA’s first moon-landing mission since the Apollo era, called Artemis III, that is currently scheduled to take off by 2028 but could suffer additional delays — in part because the SpaceX lander may not be ready in time.

Transportation secretary Sean Duffy issued warnings to the dueling companies in October, when he was also serving as NASA’s acting administrator. He indicated that NASA may use Blue Origin’s lander for Artemis III if SpaceX’s lander is too far behind schedule.

“If SpaceX is behind, but Blue Origin can do it before them, good on Blue Origin,” Duffy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in October. “But … we’re not going to wait for one company. We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese.”

A new space race

Hawkish lawmakers on Capital Hill have increasingly emphasized that they believe NASA must put astronauts back on the moon before China does. China is currently slated to take its Taikonauts to the lunar surface for the first time by 2030.

The first crewed flight of the Artemis program — a mission that will circumnavigate the moon but will not land on its surface — is slated to take off as soon as February 8.

The exact timeline for NASA to potentially alter its deal with SpaceX or bring on a new contractor for the Artemis III lunar lander was not made clear by Duffy.

The agency’s newly installed administrator, Jared Isaacman — a billionaire entrepreneur who has twice flown to space on SpaceX capsules — has not offered more specifics since taking office in December.

In January, Isaacman said in a social media post that he had met with SpaceX and Blue Origin to “understand the latest plans to accelerate NASA’s Artemis timeline.”

Blue Origin said Friday that its decision to stop flights of its suborbital New Shepard space tourism rocket reflect the company’s “commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence.”

It’s not clear how many people hold tickets for future New Shepard flights and who may now have to wait years. Blue Origin also does not disclose the price of its tickets.

Since its first crewed trip in 2021, which lifted off with Blue Origin founder Bezos and several other passengers, the New Shepard rocket has carried a total of 98 people past the the Kármán line, which lies at 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level and is commonly used to mark the boundary of outer space. Its passengers have included actor William Shatner, NFL star Michael Strahan, journalist Gayle King and singer Katy Perry.

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