Blue Origin and SERA to develop human spaceflight program

Blue Origin and Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) announced a partnership to develop a human spaceflight program. This partnership will conduct human space launches from nations that have not experienced space flight.

Both of these partners will collaborate to create opportunities for people around the world to become an astronaut. The first flight has six seats which will fly in a future mission using Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle.

Among these seats, five will be allocated to five partner nations, which will be selected based on their access to space. The sixth seat will be open to a person from any nation.

SERA is also working with National Space Agencies and regional research institutes to support the mission and develop the science experiment payloads by the launch vehicle. The community will finalize the astronauts and science experiments selection. SERA will announce partner nations in the next few months.

This program is based on an earlier collaboration between SERA and Blue Origin. It enabled Victor Hespanha, a 28-year-old civil engineer from Minas Gernais, to become the second Brazilian in space. SERA community completed this selection randomly and flew on NS-21 Blue Origin’s fifth crewed flight, on June 4, 2022.

Joshua Skurla, Co-Founder of SERA said nearly 150 countries have never had an astronaut. This program would change this scenario with the help of Blue Origin.

“This program is a meaningful step toward making space accessible to people who would otherwise not have an opportunity to experience its wonders,” said Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President, New Shepard Business Unit at Blue Origin.

Excited to team with SERA, the Space Exploration & Research Agency, to support such an inspiring initiative that makes space more accessible to so many countries! We’re looking forward to flying these future astronauts on #NewShepard and hearing their perspectives about the… https://t.co/R3XEtVkRow

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 22, 2024

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