![]() ![]() The company had already completed three human spaceflights this year ahead of Monday's anomaly, with plans for as many as three more before the end of the year. It now seems likely that the New Shepard program will be sidelined for some time as the booster anomaly is diagnosed, fixed, and tested. Included among that tally are six human spaceflights, dating to July 20, 2021, and the inaugural spaceflight that carried Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Since then, Blue Origin has accomplished 20 successful spaceflights and landings in a row, bringing both its boosters and spacecraft back safely. That mission saw a nominal flight, and the spacecraft safely landed in West Texas. This is the New Shepard program's first anomaly since its debut flight on April 29, 2015. "It's why we built so much redundancy into the system." "Safety is our highest value at Blue Origin," said Erika Wagner, senior director for Emerging Space Markets for the company and the webcast's primary commentator. Blue Origin’s rocket New Shepard blasts off carrying Star Trek actor William Shatner, 90, on billionaire Jeff Bezos’s company’s second suborbital tourism flight as part of a four-person crew near. Had a crew been on board this flight, they would have experienced a significant jolt and some high gravitational forces before landing safely in the West Texas desert. ![]() The emergency escape system performed as intended, rapidly pulling the spacecraft away from an exploding rocket. Blue Origin rescheduled the original 2018 date for first passengers several times, and eventually successfully flew its first crewed mission on July 20, 2021. This was the ninth flight of this booster, which is one half of the launch system that also includes a capsule. Suddenly, there was a large, anomalous plume of fire from the rocket's engine, and the escape motor on board the spacecraft fired. Six of the last eight missions dating back to July 2021 carried passengers, including Bezos. This happened after the rocket had passed through max Q, the point at which the vehicle faces maximum dynamic pressure during ascent, and its BE-3 rocket engine was throttling back up to continue climbing on its suborbital trajectory. Monday's flight was Blue Origin's 23rd and its fourth so far this year. This happened 1 minute and 4 seconds after launch.īlue Origin's webcast did not explain the anomaly, but it appeared that the rocket's flight termination system was activated. ![]() This happened after the rocket had passed through max Q, the point at. An anomaly occurred during an uncrewed flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard launch system on Monday morning.Īs the mission carrying three dozen scientific payloads ascended to about 9,000 meters, the New Shepard capsule's solid rocket motor-powered escape system suddenly fired, safely pulling the capsule away from the rocket. Blue Origin's webcast did not explain the anomaly, but it appeared that the rocket's flight termination system was activated. ![]()
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