Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin LLC suffered its first launch failure on Monday when its suborbital New Shepard rocket failed shortly after takeoff in West Texas. It was the first major failure for Jeff Bezos’s company since transitioning to regular commercial flights.
According to his official statement, blue origin rocket It overturned over West Texas about a minute after liftoff. It was the 23rd flight for the New Shepard program, named after the first American in space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard.
No one was aboard for Monday’s flight, which was carrying multiple payloads, although a similar version of the same vehicle is regularly used to transport paying customers to the edge of space and back. The US Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the incident.
No video was shown of the rocket – only the capsule – after the failure occurred. watch video here
Details of the failure have not been disclosed. Just a minute after takeoff, the New Shepard rocket suffered an engine problem and veered off course, prompting the emergency abort system to kick in.
“It didn’t go as planned, and we don’t have any details yet,” said Erica Wagner, senior director for emerging space markets. blue originalLaunch livestream. “But our crew capsule managed to escape successfully.”
Once a failure occurred, the capsule on top of the rocket, used to carry the payload, ignited its thrusters and quickly detached from the rocket. The capsule landed safely under a parachute. Similar abort technology will be used to rescue passengers when people are flying on rockets during an unsuccessful launch.
“You can see how our backup protection systems worked today to keep our payloads safe in a nominal condition,” Wagner said. “Safety is our top value at Blue Origin.” Blue Origin ended the launch livestream after the capsule touched down in the desert.
A representative for Blue Origin asked to stay on Twitter for updates.
This was the ninth planned flight of this particular New Shepard booster. The New Shepard is a fully reusable vehicle, and the booster is designed to land directly after a successful launch into space.
The New Shepard rocket has had a nearly perfect flight record so far, save for a partial failure in its test mission. Its most recent passenger flight was just last month. Bezos was on the first New Shepard crew last summer. In total, Blue Origin has carried 31 people to the edge of space.
What is Blue Origin LLC’s New Shepard flight?
This was the first all-payload New Shepard flight for Blue Origin since August 2021. Blue Origin has started regularly flying passengers aboard New Shepard since July 2021, when the company launched its founder, Bezos, into space.
In September 2021, a group of current and former employees of Blue Origin wrote a collective essay accusing the company of a toxic work environment, as well as security issues. In December, the FAA approved Blue Origin after reviewing the company’s safety culture.
The FAA, which licenses commercial launches, said in a statement Monday that it would oversee the investigation into the “accident” of New Shepard.
“No injuries or damage to public property have been reported,” the FAA said, noting the booster landed in a designated “danger” zone. “Before the New Shepard vehicle can return to flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, procedure or procedure related to the accident affects public safety.”
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