Blue Origin launches artwork, moon-landing test into space

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin has launched artwork painted on a capsule and a moon-landing navigation experiment for NASA into space. Thursday’s brief flight from West Texas comes a month after Blue Origin sent founder Jeff Bezos on the company’s first passenger flight. No one was on board Thursday. Blue Origin plans to alternate between tourists and research flights. It hasn’t given a date for the next tourist flight nor has it disclosed ticket prices. The portraits by a Ghana artist were on parachute panels on the outside of the capsule. One was a self-portrait. The New Shepard rocket and capsule landed successfully after the 10-minute flight.