Archive · 1 Feb 2026
Blue Origin Pauses Space Tourism for Moon Missions
Blue Origin, the company started by Jeff Bezos, is taking a break from sending people to space with its New Shepard rocket.
This rocket has taken 98 people to the edge of space, including some famous celebrities.
The company wants to focus on helping NASA send astronauts to the moon instead.
They have a big contract with NASA to build landers for the moon missions.
The New Shepard rocket will not fly for at least two years.
This is similar to what another company, Virgin Galactic, is doing.
They are also pausing their flights to work on new space planes.
Both companies want to make space travel more common in the future.
Blue Origin is pausing New Shepard space tourism flights for at least two years to focus on NASA's Moon missions.
New Shepard has flown 38 times, carrying 98 passengers to the edge of space.
The company has a $3.4 billion NASA contract to provide landers for the Artemis program.
NASA is accelerating the development of landers for the Artemis III mission, potentially involving Blue Origin.
Virgin Galactic is also pausing flights to focus on manufacturing new space planes.
- Who
- Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos
- What
- Pausing New Shepard space tourism flights to focus on NASA's Moon missions
- When
- At least two years starting from the announcement
- Where
- Launches from West Texas
- Why
- To concentrate on efforts needed for NASA’s upcoming missions to send astronauts back to the moon
- Company
- Blue Origin
- Founder
- Jeff Bezos
- Rocket
- New Shepard
- Passengers Flown
- 98
- NASA Contract
- $3.4 billion
- Artemis Mission
- Artemis V (originally), potentially Artemis III
- Pause Duration
- At least two years
- Last Flight
- Last week (as of the article)
