New Shepard rocket. Credits: Blue Origin

New Shepard 29th Mission Tested Artificial Lunar Gravity Capabilities

For the first time, Blue Origin’s New Shepard provided two minutes of artificial lunar gravity to a bunch of payloads during the launch of its capsule

On February 4th, 2025, Blue Origin’s New Shepard completed its 29th mission, NS-29, sending the RSS H.G. Wells capsule into a suborbital trajectory. The rocket lifted off at 16:00 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. The launch was scheduled for January 28, but an issue with the booster’s avionics delayed the liftoff.

After almost three minutes of flight, the capsule separated, and the NS5 booster landed four minutes later. Ten minutes after lift-off, the capsule softly touched down in the West Texas desert.

During its free flight, the capsule could mimic the Lunar gravity conditions for almost two minutes using its reaction control system to spin eleven times per minute on its vertical axis. The centrifugal force of one-sixth the Earth’s gravity allowed the payload at the midpoint of the capsule lockers to test lunar-related technologies.

NASA supported Blue Origin in developing this new feature and purchased over half of the payload space under its Flight Opportunities Program.

“NASA is pleased to be among the first customers to take advantage of this new capability”.

— Christopher Baker, program executive for NASA Flight Opportunities Program


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A load of experiments for lunar exploration

With the NS-29 mission, New Shepard brought 30 payloads to the edge of space, 29 inside the capsule and one installed outside the booster. All capsule payloads are functional for future lunar exploration missions providing insightful data to improve technologies like In-situ resource utilization and dust mitigation.

An artist rendering of Electrostatic Dust Lofting (EDL), while examining the lofting of lunar dust when electrostatic charging occurs after exposure to ultraviolet light. Credits: NASA
An artist rendering of Electrostatic Dust Lofting (EDL), while examining the lofting of lunar dust when electrostatic charging occurs after exposure to ultraviolet light. Credits: NASA

Among the experiments that underwent the artificial lunar gravity conditions, we can find:

  • Electrostatic Dust Lofting (EDL), NASA Kennedy Space Center, to study the lunar dust behavior when exposed to ultraviolet light; helping to solve dust problems.
  • Lunar-g Combustion Investigation (LUCI), NASA Glenn Research Center, to understand how materials burn on the Moon for safer lunar habitat construction.
  • Honey Bubble Excitation Experiment (H-BEE), Honeybee Robotics, to determine how gas bubbles move in a liquid and improve the molten regolith electrolysis process.

The Film Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array Micropropulsion System (FEMTA), a water-based small thruster developed by Purdue University, was attached to the booster and exposed to space to demonstrate how the device works in the low-gravity environment.


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Artificial gravity at low cost

NASA and Blue Origin announced New Shepard’s new artificial gravity capability in 2021. The feature has been developed for years supported by the agency’s funding and early payload space purchase under the Flight Opportunities Program.

New Shepard capsule rotation scheme. Credits: Blue Origin
New Shepard capsule rotation scheme. Credits: Blue Origin

If the microgravity condition could be replicated in orbit for a long period, the artificial lunar gravity exposure was previously available only for a few seconds on parabolic flights or centrifuge drop towers. With the introduction of the Partial-G Mission, Blue Origin is now capable of providing it for more than two minutes, a remarkable improvement at a low cost.

“This is an entirely new way to bring lunar gravity to NASA and other lunar technology providers, accelerating their research and tech readiness at a much lower cost”.

— Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin

Since the partial-G condition is replicated thanks to the centrifugal force induced by the capsule spinning, in the future Blue Origin will be capable of offering the gravity simulation for Mars or other bodies of the Solar System, just modulating the number of spins per minute. New Shepard’s customers will then be able to test new technologies before they move on to higher-risk missions.


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Giancarlo Albertinazzi

Giancarlo Albertinazzi

Space Ambassador, Terranaut, Future Spacepolitan, Writer of Becoming Spacepolitans Blog

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