GS PAPER III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Context: New Shephard has been named after astronaut Alan Shephard - the first American to go to space - and offers flights to space over 100 km above the Earth and accommodation for payloads.

What is New Shephard?

• New Shephard, a rocket system meant to take tourists to space.
• New Shephard completed its seventh test launch successfully in October 2020 when it took off from Texas.
• In 2018, Blue Origin was one of the ten companies selected by NASA to conduct studies and advance technologies to collect, process and use space-based resources for missions to the Moon and Mars.
• Essentially, it is a rocket system that has been designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman line – the internationally recognized boundary of space.
• The idea is to provide easier and more cost-effective access to space meant for purposes such as academic research, corporate technology development and entrepreneurial ventures among others.
• It will also allow space tourists to experience microgravity by taking them 100 km above the Earth.
• It seeks to give laypeople the ability to go to space for recreational, leisure or business purposes.
• The idea is to make space more accessible to those individuals who are not astronauts and want to go to space for non-scientific purposes.

How does it work?

• The rocket system consists of two parts, the cabin or capsule and the rocket or the booster.
• The cabin can accommodate experiments from small Mini Payloads up to 100 kg.
• As per Blue Origin, the Mini Payloads provide easier space access to students, who are part of educational institutions that are developing their own space programs, “for less than the price of new football uniforms”.
• Further, the cabin is designed for six people and sits atop a 60 feet tall rocket and separates from it before crossing the Karman line, after which both vehicles fall back to the Earth.
• The capsule is fully autonomous and does not require a pilot.
• The system is a fully reusable, vertical takeoff and vertical landing space vehicle that accelerates for about 2.5 minutes before the engine cuts off.
• After separating from the booster, the capsule free falls in space, while the booster performs an autonomously controlled vertical landing back to Earth.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-is-new-shephard-the-rocket-system-designed-to-provide-cost-effective-access-to-space-7358063/

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