Mystery rider joins 5 others in Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch

TEXAS — The mysterious sixth rider was revealed as the half dozen space explorers were launched on Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch on Wednesday morning. 

The six are part of the NS-36 mission, Blue Origin’s 15th crewed mission, which took off at 9:40 a.m. ET from Launch Site One in West Texas, stated the Washington-state company.

The launch was originally set to go off at 9 a.m. ET, then it was pushed to 9:30 a.m. ET. There was no word as to why it was pushed back.

All six climbed onboard the R.S.S. First Step spacecraft and once stage separation happened, they experienced zero gravity for about a couple of minutes before returning to Earth as three parachutes deployed.

They traveled beyond the Kármán line, the internationally established edge of space at 62 miles/100 kilometers above Earth’s surface.

Just like SpaceX rockets, the New Shepard is designed to land autonomously, and the booster touched down on a landing pad. Before the stage separation, the rocket booster was going about 2,200 mph/3,541 kph.

Meeting the six explorers

While six people are set to go up, only five have been fully named before the launch.

1. Jeff Elgin 
2. Danna Karagussova
3. Dr. Clint Kelly III
4. Aaron Newman
5. Vitalii Ostrovsky

Learn more about these travelers here.

The sixth person’s last name appeared as “Lewis” on the mission patch.

“… an undisclosed sixth crew member who asked to remain anonymous until after the flight,” stated Blue Origin in a press release.

However, once the crew stepped out of First Step, the mystery sixth person was revealed to be Will Lewis, the chairman and CEO of Insmed, a biopharmaceutical company.

This was not the first time a person has wanted his or her identity hidden. In the NS-30 launch in 2025, a sixth crew member kept his or her identity a secret.

However, for Kelly, this was his second time on Blue Origin, previously launching on the NS-22 mission in 2022.

And the commercial space flight comes at a price.

According to a Blue Origin online form to book a flight, reserving a seat requires a minimum deposit of $150,000.

Blue Origin has been flying people into space since 2021.

Two-time Blue Origin astronaut Sharon Hagle shared with Spectrum News what it was like preparing for her first mission to space in 2022 on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and the experiment she conducted on her second trip in 2024.

She also shared what it was like to experience being in space and the importance of her nonprofit SpaceKids Global. 

Both her and her husband, Marc Hagle, have gone up together and they live in Winter Park, Fla.