The first launch by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket business since a 2022 crash has occurred.
On Tuesday, the space business owned by Jeff Bezos successfully launched a rocket carrying experiments. This was the rocket’s first flight since an engine malfunction led it to crash over a year ago.
Launched from West Texas, the New Shepard rocket carried a capsule full of experiments, many of which were carried on board the unsuccessful September 2022 flight of Blue Origin. Neither the previous flight nor this one had any passengers.
This time, the capsule reached the edge of space, giving NASA and other experimenters a brief taste of weightlessness before returning to Earth via parachute to the desert. The capsule was released, and the rocket made a first landing. During the ten-minute flight, it reached an altitude of 66 miles (107 kilometers).
Shortly after liftoff in last year’s abortive flight, the rocket began to swerve off track, causing the escape system to activate and shoot the capsule off the top. The rocket crashed, but the capsule made a safe landing.
An overheated rocket engine nozzle that fractured was found to be the source of the issue. The combustion chambers and nozzles were redesigned.
This isolated location, southeast of El Paso, has been the launch pad for Blue Origin for nearly 20 years. In 2019, the firm launched its initial experiments for NASA, and in 2021, it carried Bezos and his brother as passengers. A few months later, William Shatner, star of “Star Trek,” was part of the second crew.
With 31 people, Blue Origin has launched six times total, dividing the ten-minute flights into research hops.
Launch commentator Erika Wagner stated, “We look forward to flying our next crewed flight soon after a thorough review of today’s mission.”
The orbit-destined New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin has not yet taken to the air. The business plans to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at some point in the upcoming year. John Glenn, the first American in space, is honored by the name of the spacecraft. Alan Shepard, the first American in space, is honored in the name of New Shepard.
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