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MIT Flies on Blue Origin New Shepard NS-17

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Sean Auffinger

Sean Auffinger

On August 26, 2021, the MIT  Space Exploration Initiative launched to space and back with Blue Origin a second time. The payload, a propellant transfer experiment from the MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory (ESL), crossed the 100 km Karman line and was subjected to three minutes of sustained microgravity inside Blue Origin's New Shepard experiment capsule. The payload then returned to Earth for a soft landing, part of New Shepard’s reusable launch system, allowing the research team to reclaim their experiments and data. This mission marks MIT's second research launch with Blue Origin, and constitutes a core milestone in the schedule of iterative microgravity testing that the Space Exploration Initiative undertakes throughout the year.

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