its first four passengers in 2021 – Wally Funk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and Oliver Daemen – on Blue Origin NS-16. NASA suborbital research payloads , Blue Origin had submitted the New Shepard reusable launch vehicle for use as an uncrewed rocket for NASA's suborbital reusable launch vehicle (sRLV) solicitation under NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. Blue Origin projects altitude in flights of approximately ten minutes duration, while carrying an research payload. By March 2016, Blue Origin noted that they are "due to start flying unaccompanied scientific payloads later [in 2016]." On April 29th, 2018, during its eighth flight New Shepard carried the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x, a three-pound device developed by Solstar that launched the first commercial wi-fi hotspot service in space and sent the first commercial Twitter message from space. NASA provided a part of the $2 million project's funding as a part of its Flight Opportunities program. On 12 September 2022, eighteen NASA payloads were flying on NS-23 when an in-flight failure of the booster's main engine caused an emergency ejection of the payload capsule. The payload capsule landed safely and was recovered whilst the booster was lost. See also 2009 New Glenn SpaceX reusable launch system development program List of crewed spacecraft References External links Blue's Rocket Clues (MSNBC's Cosmic Log, 24 June 2006) Future & Fantasy Spaceships Primed for Launch Commercial, Orbital Spacecraft (See Page 8) Latest Blue Origin news on the Space Fellowship Secretive Spaceship Builder's Plans Hinted at in NASA Agreement Commercial Crew Development Blue Origin (2 New craft images) Videos Images and videos at Blue Origin New Shepard space vehicle first successful soft landing, 23 November 2015 (YouTube). Blue Origin launch vehicles Space tourism Private spaceflight Reusable launch systems VTVL rockets Suborbital spaceflight Vehicles introduced in 2015 Alan Shepard