On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin launched its 11th human spaceflight, NS-31, marking the first all-women commercial spaceflight crew. Aboard the New Shepard capsule were Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sanchez. While the flight made headlines as a symbolic milestone, it also marked a change in how we think about access to space and accountability in a warming world.
In 2021, I worked alongside the U.S. Space Force at the Air Force Research Laboratory during the year Virgin Galactic launched its first fully crewed spaceflight. A few days after the flight, I visited Spaceport America to see the launch site in person, an early glimpse into the operational reality of commercial space. When Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission made headlines this year, I was genuinely excited. It brought back the sense of possibility I felt standing at Spaceport America years earlier. Commercial spaceflight had taken another step forward, and I wanted to understand what that meant. What does this flight reveal about the technical maturity of suborbital travel? And how might it shape the future of spaceflight design, regulation, and environmental impact? In this article of Now & Next, I take a closer look at what NS-31 tells us about the state of commercial space, and where it’s headed.
What’s Going On Now?
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, New Shepard is a 99% reusable, suborbital rocket designed for human spaceflight. Lifting off from El Paso, Texas, the NS-31 booster crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, before returning to land vertically. Meanwhile, the crew capsule safely parachuted back to Earth. The entire experience lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds.
The mission demonstrated technical maturity in autonomous systems and reusability. It also used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LH2/LOX) as propellants, producing only water vapor as a byproduct and emitting no carbon emissions. Blue Origin promotes this as a cleaner alternative to kerosene-fueled rockets, which release black carbon and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, recent scrutiny from scientists complicates that narrative.
Water vapor, although carbon-free, is a potent greenhouse gas when released into the stratosphere. According to Eloise Marais, a professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality at University College London, “It alters the chemistry of the stratosphere, depleting the ozone layer, and also forms clouds that affect climate.” In short, zero carbon does not mean zero impact, especially as launch frequency increases.
NS-31 also challenged traditional ideas about who gets to go to space. None of the six passengers were government-trained astronauts. Instead, thanks to the capsule’s fully autonomous systems, streamlined life support, and minimal training requirements, civilian spaceflight is becoming increasingly feasible.
What Comes Next?
NS-31 points toward a more complex future of commercial infrastructure. Blue Origin and Sierra Space’s Orbital Reef, a commercially developed, NASA-supported initiative, envisions a permanent, mixed-use business park in low Earth orbit designed to support research, manufacturing, tourism, and habitation. Unlike the International Space Station, which was built for and by government space agencies, Orbital Reef is being built to serve a broader set of users, including those historically excluded from orbital access such as sovereign nations without space programs, private companies, and universities. As suborbital flights like NS-31 become more routine, they increasingly serve as testbeds for the human and technical systems needed in long-duration missions, such as validating human-centered design, crew support, and autonomous performance. In this way, NS-31 is not an endpoint but an early rung on the ladder toward sustained, scalable orbital presence.
Missions like NS-31 also highlight the growing diversity of individuals entering space. With an all-women crew of artists, engineers, journalists, and entrepreneurs onboard, the flight marks a stark departure from the era of government-trained astronauts. This broadening of access reflects growing confidence in vehicle safety and autonomy, but it also raises new regulatory and design questions. As nontraditional participants with diverse backgrounds and needs increasingly enter the fold, existing regulations and vehicle designs, originally designed around professional astronauts, must now evolve to account for nontraditional crews and a broader range of human variability.
At the same time, the environmental and economic stakes are rising. While Blue Origin emphasizes the zero carbon emissions of its spaceflights, the full climate impact, including water vapor emissions in the stratosphere and the fossil fuels used in hydrogen production, demands closer scrutiny. Similarly, while NS-31’s all-women crew is a milestone, access to space remains highly exclusive. The first seat on a Blue Origin flight reportedly sold for $28 million. Today, customers place $150,000 deposits, but actual prices are undisclosed. For commercial spaceflight to scale beyond luxury tourism, costs must fall dramatically.
Ultimately, the future of commercial space will hinge not just on technical achievement, but on inclusive design, long-term sustainability, and equitable access. Blue Origin’s NS-31 flight offers a glimpse into the evolving realities of commercial spaceflight. As space becomes increasingly commercialized, missions like NS-31 reveal how our systems must adapt to new types of travelers and a changing planet. If the last two decades were about proving that spaceflight could be commercialized, the next will be about proving that it can be equitable, sustainable, and open.
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This piece marks my final article of the semester, and it feels fitting to end on a story that ties together so many of the questions I’ve been exploring. Over the past few months, Now & Next has been a space to trace the momentum of emerging technologies, from quantum computing to spaceflight, while also asking who these developments serve, and what implications they carry. NS-31 reminded me how quickly possibility becomes reality, and how each breakthrough brings new responsibilities. As commercial spaceflight accelerates, it’s no longer just a question of technical capability, but of who is included, and how we balance expanding new horizons with accountability.
There is still so much to explore, and I look forward to continuing this journey with you. Until then, thank you for being a part of Now & Next.
— Shannon Yeow, Engineering Correspondent
