Blue Origin launched its New Shepard rocket for the 12th time from Texas carrying a Kennedy Space Center-based trash recycling project and other experiments to the edge of space.

New Shepard and its space capsule blasted off into a foggy Texas sky on Wednesday, 12:55 p.m. ET. The rocket booster landed about 8 minutes after launch and the capsule touched down, aided by parachutes, less than 10 minutes after liftoff. New Shepard reached a height of 343,061 feet after launch, about 65 miles, according to Ariane Cornell, astronaut and New Glenn sales director at Blue Origin. The edge of space, known as Kármán line, begins at 62 miles above the Earth.

The launch marked the 9th commercial mission for New Shepard and the company’s 100th customer payload inside the space capsule. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine took to social media to congratulate the company after its 12th successful launch and landing. “Congratulations Blue Origin on another successful New Shepard launch! Thanks for flying NASA-supported tech on #NS12 like NASA Kennedy (Space Center’s) method for managing trash in space, (University of Florida’s) space plants experiment, and more,” Bridenstine said in a tweet.

One of those payloads will be the Orbital Syngas/Commodity Augmentation Reactor, or OSCAR, project developed by Dr. Annie Meier and others at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The technology behind OSCAR could help deep space exploration, by transforming trash into necessary supplies including methane, according to Meier.

To read the full story, visit https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2019/12/10/kennedy-space-center-trash-recycling-project-launching-on-blue-origin-rocket/.
Author: Emilee Speck at Click Orlando.
Photo courtesy of BlueOrigin.

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