Blue Origin schedules 38th New Shepard flight; to launch six people to suborbital space on January 22
Blue Origin has scheduled its next milestone in suborbital flight as the latest mission, NS-38, is ready for launch. Jeff Bezos’s aerospace firm has targeted a liftoff from its Launch Site One in West Texas on Thursday, January 22, 2026. This flight is another step in the company’s initiative to make space travel more accessible. The flight will be carrying a crew of six individuals beyond the internationally recognized boundary of space, the Kármán line. The launch window is calculated to be open at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT; 8:30 a.m. local Texas time).
Mission NS-38 Update: One of our crew members is no longer able to fly due to illness; he will join a future mission. Our new sixth crew member will be Dr. Laura Stiles, Blue Origin’s Director of New Shepard Launch Operations. The mission is still slated for Thursday, January 22,… pic.twitter.com/T53tfjClIs
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 20, 2026
The crew for the latest mission includes Tim Drexler, Dr. Linda Edwards, Alain Fernandez, Alberto Gutiérrez, Jim Hendren, and Laura Stiles. The initial announcement of the NS-38 crew members had Andrew Yaffe on the list, a veteran of the recycling industry; however, the latest update confirmed that he would no longer be flying. It was mentioned that he dropped out due to some illness, but will participate in a future Blue Origin flight. Blue Origin’s Director of New Shepard Launch Operations, Dr. Laura Stiles, replaced him as the sixth member of the crew.
Tim Drexler is an entrepreneur and pilot, Dr. Linda Edwards is a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, and Alain Fernandez is a real estate developer and investor. Alberto Gutiérrez is an entrepreneur and technologist, and Jim Hendren is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and founder of the company Hendren Plastics Inc.
Blue Origin has flown 92 humans (86 individuals) above the Kármán line to date. Meanwhile, NS-38, as the name indicates, will be the 38th flight of New Shepard, the reusable rocket-capsule combo of Blue Origin. Out of the 37 missions of the vehicle, 16 of them have carried people, and the others have been uncrewed research flights, according to Space.com. The flights last for 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to parachute-aided touchdown of the capsule. The crew onboard gets to experience a brief moment of weightlessness and see Earth set against the background of space.
Blue Origin also released the NS-38 mission patch and explained what each symbol meant. The people in the windows represent the crew on New Shepard's 38th mission. The Kármán line is symbolic of Drexler's ambition for space travel and witnessing the final frontier. The CU and FLY initials are for Yaffe's parents, the former being the symbol of copper representing his father's accomplishments, as he was known as the copper king in the metal scrapping industry, and the latter being the initials of his mother. Meanwhile, the Diamond DA42s reflect Gutiérrez's and Drexler's love of flying. The F-15 stands for Hendren’s F-15 Eagle, flown by both himself and his son, while the stethoscope and female symbol stand for the success of Edwards’s medical career. Fernandez’s life motto: "I beacon in the night — believe it, work toward it with strength and discipline," is represented by a beacon of light piercing the atmosphere.
Folks from across the globe can witness this display of reusable flight to space. The spaceflight organization will be setting up live coverage of the entire event, which will begin 30 minutes before the launch on BlueOrigin.com.
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