Blue Origin launches research payloads and artwork into space on 17th suborbital flight

A month after launching company founder Jeff Bezos into space, Blue Origin fired off another New Shepard suborbital spacecraft Thursday. This time, it was carrying NASA lunar landing technology and 18 other research payloads.

The capsule also featured three portraits by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo that were attached to the ship's parachute covers. Working with special paints to withstand the stresses of spaceflight, the portraits represented the artist's mother, the mother of a childhood friend and himself. "A self-portrait looking up to the skies best explains what this project means to me," Boafo said in a statement. "I grew up knowing the sky was the limit and now I get to work on a project that goes beyond the sky as we know it."