Blue Origin Rocket Ready For Take Off

The 17th flight of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket will carry 18 commercial payloads inside the capsule and an external sense to test lunar landing tech for NASA. This Blue Origin trip follows Amazon ($AMZN@US) and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos’ historic 10-minute journey to space with his brother Mark, aeronautics legend Wally Funk and student Oliver Daemen. The payloads inside the crew capsule include the first art installation to fly with Blue Origin: a series of three portraits by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo painted inside the crew capsule on its chute covers. Liftoff is set for Thursday at 6:35 a.m. PT from the company's West Texas launch site. The 10-15 minute flight will be streamed via BlueOrigin.com, starting about 30 minutes before launch. It's still unclear when the next crewed Blue Origin flight with paying customers will take place.