JAKARTA - Blue Origin announced that it would temporarily stop New Shepard rocket flights for commercial needs, for at least the next two years.
In its official announcement, Blue Origin stated that this decision was made to divert the company's resources to accelerate the development of human flight capabilities to the moon, which is part of the United States' national program.
"This decision reflects Blue Origin's commitment to the nation's goal of returning to the moon and building a permanent and sustainable presence on the moon," the company wrote.
New Shepard has been known as a space tourism rocket. Where this rocket can be used repeatedly and land vertically.
So far, New Shepard has flown 38 times and taken 98 people on short trips into space, past the boundary known as the Kármán line.
Not only carrying passengers, New Shepard is also often used to deliver various research payloads, including experiments from students, campuses, research institutions, to NASA. In total, more than 200 research payloads have been flown using this rocket.
"New Shepard has launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads from students, academics, research organizations, and NASA," the company added.
Although New Shepard is still in high demand and has a waiting list of customers to fly to the moon in the next few years, Blue Origin chose to set it aside, in order to accelerate the development of technology for human missions to the moon.
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