Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is moving its New Shepard program to the backburner.
The company said it will pause and shift resources to further accelerate development of the its human lunar capabilities. It said the decision reflects its "commitment to the nation's goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence."
Space for Humanity, a nonprofit organization focused on expanding access to space for everyone, called the decision "disheartening" but applauded Blue Origin's focus on lunar missions.
"This isn't a step back, it's a step up. Going to the Moon is hard and the decision to shift focus and put resources behind that goal is understandable. In this modern era of space travel, private commercial aerospace companies have expanded humanity's access to and reach into space in ways undreamt of just decades ago," the organization said in a statement.
New Shepard is a reusable spaceflight system capable of vertically landings. Blue Origin said the spacecraft have flown 38 times and carried 98 humans above the Kármán line, the generally accepted boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
The program has launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads from students, academia, research organizations and NASA. Blue Origin said the program has become popular enough at this point that the company is dealing with a multi-year customer backlog.
