Defect at 8,500 meters altitude
Shortly after the launch of the New Shepard on September 12, 2022 from the Blue Origin launch site in West Texas, an unforeseen event occurred at an altitude of approximately 8,500 meters. After about a minute, the rocket went off course and the launch abort system disconnected the capsule from the rocket engine. The capsule then sailed back towards Earth with a parachute and landed in the nearby desert. What happened to the rocket, originally designed to be reused, is unknown. Although the activation of the emergency mechanism was not planned, according to Blue Origin everything went “according to plan” from a technical point of view. The only question that remains is why the mechanism was activated. The flight had no passengers on board, only payload was carried. “We are now investigating the anomaly and its cause,” chief architect Gary Lai said at a conference in Colorado in late February, according to SpaceNews. “We will get to the bottom of the cause,” he assured.
Increased focus on suborbital tourism
Exactly what the event means for the future of Blue Origin and the New Shepard is still unclear. Further information on what the exact status of the rocket is and what the future timeline for new launches looks like is also not yet known. But Gary Lai gives an outlook on the future direction of Blue Origin: “We expect that in the near future, in the coming year, suborbital tourism will dominate our flights,” Lai said, according to SpaceNews. Commercial flights and payload transport will decrease in importance in the future, but the company currently transports research payloads to study the atmosphere. However, Blue Origin will continue to support a few special payload missions per year as before, even as the number of private astronaut flights continues to increase.
Space travel as routine in the future
The launch failure is the New Shepard’s first failure since its first flight to the edge of space in October 2021. Since then, the New Shepard has made 20 successful flights and landings. As with the competitor SpaceX from Elon Musk it is a reusable rocket. Named after the first US astronaut Alan Shepard, the rocket offers private individuals an 11-minute flight with the Shepard in standard times. Interested parties can simply fill out an inquiry on the company’s website. The exact price is not disclosed by the company. According to Gary Lai, there is a great need for improvement in Blue Origin’s tourism orientation, the turnaround times between flights still need to be reduced. Blue Origin’s ultimate goal is “to learn how to make spaceflight routine,” he explained, according to SpaceNews.
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