By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Blue Origin announced Friday that it is pausing flights aboard its suborbital space tourism rocket New Shepard. Since 2021, New Shepard has provided 10-minute flights to the edge of space for wealthy thrill seekers, celebrities and special guests. The company, founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, said in a
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Update (January 22, 2026): Blue Origin successfully completed its NS-38 flight this morning. This was the first launch of 2026, according to the company. “As we enter 2026, we’re focused on continuing to deliver transformational experiences for our customers through the proven capability and reliability of New Shepard,” said Phil Joyce, SVP, New Shepard. “We
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Originally Published: 15 JAN 26 00:02 ET Updated: 15 JAN 26 03:49 ET By Jackie Wattles, CNN Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. (CNN) — Four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down early Thursday in the
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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A Blue Origin rocket will soon launch carrying an unconventional passenger in a history-making moment made possible by a high-profile former employee of the company’s biggest rival. Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, will be aboard the mission, known as NS-37, and become
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VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin just announced its next crewed New Shepard flight, named NS-37, will take off from Launch Site One outside of Van Horn on Thursday, December 18, 2025. On board will be West Texas native Jason Stansell. The crew of NS-37 (Courtesy: Blue Origin) The launch window will open at
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VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin’s 36th New Shepard flight successfully took off from and landed back in the West Texas desert this morning. Blue Origin launches its New Shepard program from a site outside of Van Horn, Texas. Watch this morning’s launch in the video player above. This morning’s launch saw six new
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — UTEP Professor Jose Hurtado, Ph.D., is part of a team of scientists that is mapping the moon ahead of a planned 2027 lunar landing. NASA is planning to land two astronauts on the moon’s south pole. currently, a high-quality, modern map of the south pole does not exist. Hurtado’s team,
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Watch the launch below: Update (September 18, 2025): Blue Origin’s 35th New Shepard flight and 15th payload mission successfully launched from Launch Site One outside of Van Horn, Texas this morning. The flight carried a payload from students at Tornillo High School, as well as payloads from other students, NASA, research institutions, and commercial companies.
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UPDATE: Blue Origin announced they are scrubbing today’s launch. The company posted on X: “The team encountered an issue related to the booster’s avionics. New launch target forthcoming.” ABC-7 will provide updates on-air and online as more information becomes available. VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin’s 35th New Shepard mission is set to carry
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) — NMSU’s Arrowhead Center and the Center for Border Economic Development just published a study on Spaceport America’s economic impact on New Mexico from 2019 to 2024. The report estimates that Spaceport America has contributed $110.8 million in value-added production and $73.1 million in labor income in 2024. “Our impact
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Four astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after hustling to the International Space Station five months ago to relieve the stuck test pilots of Boeing’s Starliner. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Pacific off the Southern California coast a day after departing the orbiting lab. “Welcome home,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed. Splashing down were NASA’s
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VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin launched its 14th human spaceflight as part of the New Shepard Program, and its 34th overall flight from Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas Sunday morning. Blue Origin’s New Shepard program has flown more than 70 people beyond the Kármán line, the internationally recognized edge of space.
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Some residents of the Borderland reported to ABC-7 about a trail of lights they saw crossing the sy last night. What viewers were seeing in the sky was actually a group of satellites that connect to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service. Space-X also launched a new group of satellites yesterday
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin announced the crew of the New Shepard’s 34th Mission today. The crew includes Arvi Bahal, Gökhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, J.D. Russell, and H.E. Justin Sun. Sun was the winning bidder of the first New Shepard seat in 2021. “The proceeds from the $28 million bid benefitted 19
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The thunder of a solid rocket booster hurtling a scientific payload to the edge of space shook the sides of buildings on White Sands Missile Range Friday. The sounding rocket carried the first space test of a new type of technology meant to study what happens on the surface of
Continue Reading Watch ABC-7’s livestream of the launch below: VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA)– Blue origin’s new Shepard rocket blasted off from the company’s launch site this morning. It’s took take place at Launch Site One in Van horn, Texas. About 2 hours east of El Paso. Six people were on board for the 10 minute mission in space.
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Watch the webcast of the flight below: VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — The next New Shepard crewed flight, NS-33, was scheduled to lift off from Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas on Sunday, June 29, 2025. The flight first tried to launch on Saturday, June 21, but had to scrub the launch attempt after
Continue Reading Blue Origin released the following statement after the NS-32 successfully touched down: Today, Blue Origin successfully completed its 12th human spaceflight and the 32nd flight for the New Shepard program. The crew included: K-12 STEM teacher Aymette Medina Jorge, radiologist turned explorer Dr. Gretchen Green, former Panamanian ambassador to the United States Jaime Alemán, businessman
Continue ReadingOriginally Published: 22 APR 24 19:13 ETBy Ashley Strickland, CNNEditor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.(CNN) — For the first time in five months, NASA engineers have received decipherable data from Voyager 1 after crafting a creative solution to fix a
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — 50 years after the first American mission to the moon a new American rocket launching overnight from Cape Canaveral marking the first lunar launch from the U.S. since NASA’s final Apollo mission. The brand new rocket “The Vulcan” is made by the private space company “United Launch Alliance” hoping to jump into in the commercial space tourism industry.
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — In a groundbreaking venture, Celestis, Inc., a pioneer in memorial spaceflight services, is poised to launch its deep space Voyager Mission, the Enterprise Flight, on January 8 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This momentous mission, conducted in partnership with United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket, bears witness to
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(CNN) — India has landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, becoming only the fourth nation ever to accomplish such a feat. The mission could cement India’s status as a global superpower in space. Previously, only the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have completed soft landings on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-3’s landing site
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SPACEPORT, NM (KVIA) — History in the making as Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity prepares for their first tourist aboard launch from Spaceport America at 9 a.m. (MDT). This marks the beginning of a new era in space tourism, with three tourists embarking on a breathtaking journey to the edge of space. Meet the Trio: Jon
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — All eyes and ears were on a whistleblower’s congressional subcommittee testimony last month regarding the existence of life beyond Earth, and extraterrestrials right here on the big blue planet. Former Pentagon employee David Grush told Congress last week that UFO’s are real and that the government is withholding knowledge of
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(KVIA) — NASA is getting ready to take the streaming wars to the moon. The space agency released this new trailer for its first on-demand streaming service, called NASA+. NASA says the family friendly service will feature the agency’s live streams, collections of its original video series and some new series just for streaming. NASA+
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Borderland residents weighed in on the debate over whether or not aliens are real as a U.S. House of Representatives Oversight subcommittee holds a UFO hearing. ABC-7 spoke with local residents in response to the testimony presented to the Committee by former intelligence workers. Retired Maj. David Grusch spoke to
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified Wednesday to Congress. The Pentagon has denied his claims. Retired Maj. David Grusch’s highly anticipated testimony before a House Oversight subcommittee was Congress’ latest foray into the world of UAPs — or
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DONA ANA COUNTY, New Mexico (KVIA) — Students from Sunland Park, Anthony, and Las Cruces are sending science experiments to the edge of space on the Airbus Perlan Mission II. The pressurized glider will travel 90,000 feet to the stratosphere, higher than any other piloted airplane, carrying with it a number of projects by students
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SPACEPORT AMERICA, New Mexico (KVIA) — Virgin Galactic announced on Thursday that its next mission flight window will open August 10. The upcoming mission marks the company’s seventh spaceflight out of Spaceport America in southern New Mexico and second commercial spaceflight. Three private, paying passengers will be aboard. ABC-7 is working to learn who those
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Virgin Galactic, the venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, successfully launched its first paying customers to the edge of space — a milestone two decades in the making. The company’s inaugural commercial flight Thursday was a research-focused mission with Italian Air Force-funded passengers — rather than a group
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