Blue Origin pauses New Shepard suborbital tourism flights

Summary: Space.com reports on January 30, 2026, Blue Origin announced that New Shepard suborbital flights would pause for at least 2 years, redirecting resources to lunar capabilities development. This decision impacted Blue Origin's space tourism operations.

Key Information:

• Blue Origin has a NASA contract to use the Blue Moon lander for Artemis 5 (target 2029)
• New Shepard has completed 38 flights, including 17 crewed missions with 98 people reaching suborbital space
• Blue Origin is also developing a 5,400-satellite internet constellation called "TeraWave"
• Blue Origin may launch the Blue Moon Pathfinder robotic demo mission in late 2026

Sources (original pages)

• Space.com: Blue Origin pausing space tourism flights