Blue Origin's first launch of 2018 will take place this afternoon

Blue Origin's 8th launch of their New Shepard rocket will occur this afternoon at 12:43pm EDT from their West Texas launch site. After a couple delays this morning from thunderstorms, the launch countdown is underway once again. This is the 3rd overall booster of the New Shepard rocket. The first flown booster failed to land successfully and the 2nd booster re-flew multiple times and is now on display at Blue Origin's rocket factory in Florida. This third rocket flew at the end of the year last year and that's the same booster launching today.

Blue Origin has their crash dummy placed inside the capsule during this flight which will gather data on scientific studies and various data to what humans will experience on a flight. It will also record pressure, noise, and environmental data inside the capsule.

They're planning on their first crewed flights sometime later this year and will send their first passengers into space by 2019. These test flights provide all the data necessary to ensure a safe environment and rocket for civilians to fly into space.

A livestream of the launch can be found on Blue Origin's Website