WATCH: Blue Origin launches New Shepard 8th human flight

coast moments ago. This feed just popping up, sadly, right after the launch happened. But I can tell you right now. they're only about a minute in Not sure if there is any narration. So I do want to pop this up in a second, but this is actually the blue origin. uh, saying that the new Shepard is going to lift off from West, Texas. in its eighth, human flight NS 26. Looks like it has taken off. Let's pop up the audio to see if we can hear anything. We are. witnessing the eighth human space flight of new Shepard. We have astronauts. 38 through 43 on the vehicle. on his way to space. our next Milestone here is main engine cutoff And what will witness is? the speed will start to come down. but the uh, the Excel, excuse me. The the altitude will continue to go up. When the speed hits zero means we have hit apogee. Jackie, I think. 1 of the other. cool part of this program is that we slow. You see that kind of slight little hot dog roll. You got going on of the rocket we just want to get well it's really is just to give the astronauts each. 360 degree view as they're going up. Which is so cool. All right. main engine. cut off and separation. Have been confirmed. And Jackie. this is when our our astronauts are feeling. zero g, Dr. Rob furl, is going to start his his experiments up there. in the cabin. hopefully, after a little time to look out the window. free experimentation. I would totally steal. At least a a couple of looks out of the big gorgeous windows. And again, we're coming up on apigee. You see that the speed is reducing when it hits zero. that's when we've hit, that is when we've hit apogee. at this point, we are well over the Carman line about 328,000 or 100 kilometers. 328,000 feet or 100 kilometers up. And there it is. apogee. About. 340,000 feet. Feet. Jackie, can you imagine The View? I was talking about being jealous of your Astronaut training, but I'm more jealous of them right now. You know, they're unbuckled at the moment. they're turning their somersaults. They are. Soaking it in, They are, you know, we're witnessing. 6 people having their minds blown right now as we speak. but the booster is heading on down. And it will be the. the capsule back to Earth. the booster, of course, has a controlled landing on a landing pad just 2 miles north of where it's taken off from the capsule. less aerodynamically shaped. Will. uh, will land second under. 3 parachutes. Uh, in our uh Landing Zone in our Valley, in West Texas. So far. a nominal flight of our 26 mission. to space and back. Of the new Shepard. Vehicle. Plus, our 8th human space flight. Congratulations. Truly to all 6 of our astronauts today. Oh, I'm sorry. our crew who officially have become astronauts. That's right. massive congratulations. over the Karman line. fáááááá wow. Phoenix report, status. 645 and 68. Thank you. For all 6, astronauts are back in their seat and the booster is screaming on home. yeah, as we mentioned that booster is going to return to Earth a lot faster than the capsule because of the aerodynamic nature of the crew capsule. Was coming back to the clouds. That's a sweet view of the booster, as it's coming back through the atmosphere here. So we see the dry brakes have been deployed. there's the relight of that. be3 engine. That gorgeous cover above the Landing Pad. And booster touchdown. a successful touchdown of the booster for the NS. 26 mission. To see. Always. a sight to see real. I mean, speed going thousands of miles per hour. And then it comes in landing. You see, it just kind of hovers there at 5 Mi an hour. It's such a smooth descent. and it's and Landing. And to as, as a reminder. to people This is so critical. to the reusability. because the the smoother, The Landing, the less you jostle, the rocket, the less, you have to. refurbish the rocket, the more you can more uses you can get out of the rocket. Absolutely. And some, some really cool things here, right? Like, those fins you were talking about earlier, are Lessons Learned with guiding this vehicle back are going to be applied to our next big vehicle new Glenn. So again, just so many Lessons Learned From This booster. Every single mission, Every single Mission Now, the the crew capsule is obviously also coming back down. to land here. Uh, we are going to have first the drogue parachutes that come out. Those are kind of like the guide parachutes. then we're going to see the mains. They will. Reef. So they're going to kind of go out just a little bit and then they fully inflate. And talk about cutting speed. you can already see the speed on the the, on the the screen there. it comes in at just like 15, 16 miles like 15 for a nice. So, there she is. and again, these parachutes, both the drogues and the mains are essential in Providing a gentle touchdown for the capsule But as we get closer to the ground here, you're going to see a retro thrust system on the base of the capsule. Um, which does kick up a bit of West Texas dust, but it makes for an even smoother touchdown. Then again, you know, like you said the already slow speed, that the capsule is descending at now. We're just. 400 feet away from touchdown. again, stay tuned for that. Retro thrust system here. And crew capsule touchdown. Welcome home to the newest. 6, astronauts the blue steel team. Once more, what appears to be a completely. smooth flight for new Shepard. uh, our booster touching down at the, at the Landing Pad. in a soft Landing for our Our latest crew. just a beautiful. flight. Up and back. I mean, That is just 1 of the the, the cleanest flights I've seen. from this rocket, but behind every rocket is an extraordinary team. So, a big shout out to the entire new Shepard program. What a beautiful flight today? and another congratulations to the 6, newest, astronauts. What a day, it has been. now, our capsule. uh recovery team is currently going to be driving out to the Convoy. to meet the capsule. They're going to Safe the the capsule and get ready to open the hatch and welcome our astronauts back home. And that Convoy includes, obviously, you know, the vehicle team, the new Shepard professionals, but also the family members of our crew who without a doubt are excited to reunite with their loved ones, their newly minted, astronauts I, you know, we saw it earlier in, in 1 of the videos, but some of those hugs when they're astronauts, come back to earth. are probably some of the most memorable Biggest hugs in a lifetime. There's there's some mean, hugs, Those are some mean, hugs. We've captured some mean, hugs on these, uh, on these webcasts. Well, so, talking about friends and family, you know, we, we talk these people have dreamed of going to space for a long time. but with those sorts of Dreams, Come friends and family that support in so many ways. Emotional and otherwise um and on that note while we're waiting for the recovery crew to make it out to the capsule, We were able a couple of days ago. to have a chat was a very special. former astronaut and someone who's got uh, a tight connection with 1 of today's crew. Let's hear what ns20 astronaut Jim kitchen. Had to say, about what this experience is like, for astronauts, as well as what his daughter. Carson kitchen. may be experiencing right now. all right, we've got a very special guest with us today. from our ns20. crew, Jim kitchen. Welcome back. How's it feel to be down in West Texas once again, it's exciting to be here. to watch another space launch. And, uh, here at the iconic. El Capitan hotel in lovely Van Horn, Texas, Well, hey, this isn't just any you know, space. launch. There's somebody very special going up. Tell me about her. This is a special launch. Um, when she was a little girl, my daughter karsen she told me. definitively. that she's going to be an astronaut and here we are. 15 years later and she's actually going to be an astronaut in a uh you know going to space at a in a couple of days. How you? obviously are very proud Dad. What's it's there's got to be a lot of contradicting, thoughts going through your head right now. What, what are you feeling? Yeah. well put, um, it's, it's emotional. her mom and I um are here our families coming, Our friends are coming It's emotional. um, to see. some of that's wanted to go to space. and is actually, you know, a dream come true. and, you know, to be able to to have that dream and to to have it fulfilled. is is amazing But you know I think about Alan Shepard in 1961 going to space and then his daughter Laura Shepard uh doing that after I, you know, it's it's surreal to think that she and I are are going to be, you know, have that in common um, but it's uh, you know, such mixed feelings on this because, it's exciting, But, you know, we're also you know, watching watching this in, with anticipation Yeah, that's your baby. Um, have you spoken to Carson? Uh, since she started her her training what what's going through her head? These these days at this moment, it's 1 thing to be thinking about it, when you're back at home And so another thing once you get to Van Horn, you know, it's real yeah, I saw her last night and she's really excited. And she's a very positive person. Um, she looked at me and said, dad of all the people that have ever lived on this. on this planet and we talked about that number, it was uh, 110 billion people. uh, that she gets an opportunity to go to space and she's dumbfounded by that. We were looking at the Stars last night at the astronaut Village. and she said, you know, people since the dawn of humanity have wanted to go to space and to actually be able to do that. um be 1 of the first 700 Uh there's only been a hundred women hundred or so women that have have done that and so for her to be 1 of the the youngest women and the actually the youngest woman to go past the Karman line. is surreal um, but, you know, she's she's all business, she can't wait till till, uh, launch day and um, but she's just having the time of her life. She hugged me a couple times and it's just like, I can't believe this is happening. Uh, but she's excited. and very confident. Amazing. Well, all business. Um, your daughter? Karsen has found an amazing organization called orbitel. Do you want to talk to us? a little bit about uh, about the organization? and its mission? In general, what she wants to do is just