Blue Origin Pauses New Shepard Flights. SERA UNITY launch on hold.

Blue Origin headed back to the Moon

Blue Origin has announced that they are officially pausing all New Shepard flights for no less than two years in order to focus on the Blue Moon lunar lander program and the New Glenn rocket. SERA’s UNITY launch, which was set to send six everyday citizens to space on New Shepard through a regionalised, democratic selection process, is consequently on hold. SERA’s vision to open up space exploration and research to everyone on the planet continues.

SERA’s Vision Continues

Over the coming weeks we will be exploring alternative near-term launch solutions for the 140,000 + aspiring astronauts who signed up in the SERA Mission Control App. With applicants from over 160 nations, most of which have no active human spaceflight program, the SERA community has demonstrated that the desire to transcend Earth’s boundaries is a universal human phenomenon.

Our community science experiment competition, designed in collaboration with Cornell Labs and The University of Austin Texas, will be reconfigured for the next suitable launch opportunity and open up for submissions shortly.

SERA is also identifying ways to expand our training curriculum and find intermediate "near-space" opportunities for our community members to ensure that when we do launch, our astronaut corps is the best-prepared civilian team in history.

A look back at New Shepard

At SERA, nothing excites us more than the expansion of human activity offworld, and we will be rooting for Blue Origin’s success as they support NASA’s manned return to the Moon after a 50 year absence. While the Karman line is a lot closer to home, the New Shepard program demonstrates the unique power of human spaceflight to transform individual lives and inspire communities and nations that have historically lacked access to space.

SERA’s first astronaut Victor Hespanha is a case in point. At 28 he was selected from the SERA community to become South America’s first civilian astronaut. His story caught the imagination of an entire nation and inspired thousands of young people to pursue STEM careers. Space changed him forever too, as he decided to leave his career as a civil engineer to join SERA and dedicate himself to helping others follow in his footsteps. We look forward to New Shepard getting back to flight so more lives can be transformed and inspired by the experience it provides.

Stay Tuned…

Stay tuned to our socials over the coming days and weeks for announcements relating to UNITY as we explore alternative paths forward for the program to continue to deliver on our mission to open up space exploration and research to all.

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The SERA Team