RSS Kármán Line
RSS Kármán Line (Reusable Space Ship Kármán Line) is a New Shepard space capsule, built and operated by American spaceflight company Blue Origin. It is the fourth New Shepard capsule to fly to space, and is slated to be the second to fly passengers, after RSS First Step. The capsule's first uncrewed flight was the NS-27 mission on 23 October 2024, which was also the maiden flight of New Shepard booster NS5.
History
RSS Kármán Line, the fourth New Shepard capsule, was built by Blue Origin to "better meet growing customer demand" for New Shepard flights. The spacecraft is named after the Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) and the conventional definition of the edge of space, which the capsule crosses at the apogee of its sub-orbital spaceflight. The capsule first flew on the uncrewed NS-27 verification mission, which launched on 23 October 2024 carrying twelve customer payloads, after issues pushed back the launch from 7 October 2024.
The first crewed flight of the capsule was NS-31, which was the first all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova's solo 1963 flight on Vostok 6.