Blue Origin is pausing its New Shepard space tourism flights and shifting resources towards faster progress of the company’s human lunar capabilities, according to an announcement made at the end of January.
In a press release, the Jeff-Bezos-owned firm said the move “reflects Blue Origin’s commitment to the nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence.”
The hiatus for New Shepard tourism flights comes amid what Blue Origin called “a multi-year customer backlog,” popular demand attributed to the spaceflight company’s “consistent and reliable performance” and “exceptional customer experience.” That backlog is unlikely to be helped by the pause in flights, with those due to fly this year now having to wait until 2028 before flights resume.
To date, the New Shepard has become the first reusable vertical-landing system and started taking tourists to space in 2021. Since then, it has grown its reputation by taking 92 humans, including celebrities, journalists, researchers, and tourists, beyond the notional edge of space at the Kármán line. It has also carried 200 scientific payloads from academic institutions, research teams, and NASA.
The NASA relationship includes a contract to land NASA astronauts on the moon a Blue Origin Blue Moon spacecraft. Launch is scheduled for the Artemis V mission in 2029, but before then, Blue Origin intends to send a pathfinder Blue Moon on a demo mission, as early as 2026.
Meanwhile, Artemis II is set to inaugurate crewed Artemis flight with a round-the-moon voyage by March 2026. The Artemis III and Artemis IV, the first crewed Artemis missions to the moon’s surface, are expected to use SpaceX‘s Starship lander, though Blue Origin is reported to be developing a competing lander that could be ready for Artemis III.
The competition between the two billionaire-run space firms is seen as a positive for the US chances in the space race versus China, as both superpowers vie for a moon shot.
Still, would-be space visitors, who had been buoyed by the announcement in 2025 that Blue Origin was going to increase flights moving to “weekly cadence,” will now be disappointed except for one lucky spacegoer, aboard the New Shepard NS38, which flew mid-January. A Bezos employee stepped in at the last minute to take the place of a sixth customer who was unable to fly due to illness. It may have been one of the last times such a trip will be possible for the next few years.
