News | May 25, 2021

Estes and Club for the Future collaborate to launch New Shepard model rocket

Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s foundation, is excited to announce a new collaboration with Estes Industries(opens in a new tab). Estes is the premier provider of model rocket kits and engines, and has been committed to creating safe, successful rocketry experiences for customers everywhere for more than 60 years. Estes and Club for the Future will launch a series of Blue Origin models and educational content to inspire the next generation of space leaders and explorers.

We are proud to announce the first of this series, the Estes New Shepard model rocket. It will launch in November and is available for pre-order now. A portion of proceeds will go to Club for the Future to benefit its STEM education programs.

The 1/66th scale Estes New Shepard model is fully reusable and follows the same flight profile as the actual rocket. Similar to the original New Shepard rocket, this rocket is payload-capable and the capsule separates from the booster near its apogee of nearly 400 feet.

Each box includes a Club for the Future postcard(opens in a new tab) for kids to draw or write their vision of how they see the future of life in space. Those postcards will be flown on a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket to space. After the flight, the postcard will be returned with an official ‘Flown to Space’ stamp as a unique keepsake.

Additionally, a suite of free hands-on STEM activities, designed in collaboration with middle school teachers, will be available in the coming months for kids to further explore the science of flight, design engineering, and data literacy in a fun way.

“Our hope is that the Estes New Shepard model sparks the imagination of future space explorers and inspires them to carve out their own role in helping to invent the future of life in space,” said Josef Reinke, Director, Club for the Future.

“The Estes and Club for the Future collaboration is the next exciting step in Estes’s long legacy of supporting STEM education and the Estes New Shepard is the perfect vehicle to inspire future generations,” said Mallory Langford, President, Estes Industries.

The Estes New Shepard will be available for purchase this holiday season. Pre-order today at the Blue Origin Store(opens in a new tab) and Estesrockets.com(opens in a new tab).