Blue Origin has announced the crew for its upcoming NS-36 mission, the 36th flight for the New Shepard program and its 15th human spaceflight. The crew members are Jeff Elgin, Danna Karagussova, Dr. Clint Kelly III, Aaron Newman, Vitalii Ostrovsky, and a sixth individual who has chosen to remain anonymous until after the flight. This mission will bring the total number of people Blue Origin has flown above the Kármán line—the international boundary of space—to 75, including five repeat customers. Dr. Clint Kelly III is one of those, having previously flown on the NS-22 mission in August 2022.
The crew represents a diverse group of accomplished individuals. Jeff Elgin is a franchise industry executive and founder of FranChoice, a company dedicated to helping people achieve business ownership. Danna Karagussova is a co-founder of Portals, a multimodal ecosystem, and a lifelong mountaineer who sees space as a transformative frontier for human evolution. Dr. Clint Kelly III is an electrical engineer and a pioneer in robotics, having launched the Autonomous Land Vehicle project at DARPA, which helped catalyze the development of driverless cars. He is also an avid wildlife photographer.
Aaron Newman is a serial entrepreneur and explorer who has visited the wreck of the Titanic, descended into the Mariana Trench, and is a U.S. Army veteran. Vitalii Ostrovsky is a Ukrainian businessman, investor, and relentless globetrotter who has lived in over 100 countries. The flight date will be announced soon, with a live webcast available on BlueOrigin.com and other platforms 30 minutes before liftoff.
