subocular flight of Blue Origin ’s outer space tourism rocket are suspended pending a Federal Aviation Administration reappraisal of Monday ’s in - flight anomaly . No passenger were alongside at the time , but the apparent recall dose failure triggered the fomite ’s capsule escapism system .
The apparent booster failure find 65 seconds into Blue Origin ’s NS-23 mission , which blasted off from the company ’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:27 a.m. ET on Monday . The anomaly induce the Eruca vesicaria sativa ’s abort system to pursue , shooting the uncrewed capsule away from the fervid booster . The capsule made a successful parachute - serve landing place , but the booster crashed to the background instead of performing its usual vertical landing place .
There are no reputation of combat injury or property harm , and we ’re still look word on the destiny of the 36 scientific and technological warhead that submit part in NS-23 . Of these payloads , most belonged to NASA .
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos during a post-launch briefing on 2 May 2025.Photo: Tony Gutierrez (AP)
Monday ’s recall dose failure “ is a compelling reminder of the risk of spaceflight , ” Don Beyer , professorship of the House Committee on Science , Space , and Technology ’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics , said in a governmentstatement . “ I take our supervision role in this sphere very earnestly . I will await further data from the FAA ’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation as it begin its probe of the anomaly experienced today . ”
Indeed , the Federal Aviation Administration has set in motion an investigation into the incident and has suspended launch of New Shepard pending the outcome . Before the rocket is allowed to wing again , the FAA “ will set whether any arrangement , process , or procedure related to the misadventure affected public safety , ” the agency explicate in astatement . The FAA said its probe was “ standard practice ” following an accident of this character , and that the delegacy is “ responsible for for protect the public during commercial blank transportation launch and reentry military operation . ”
The rocket commonly remove paying passengers on inadequate suborbital trip to the edge of space , in which the capsule reaches stature in excess of 60 mile ( 100 kilometer ) . The capsule , divide from the first stagecoach booster station , then repay to Earth with the assistance of a parachute . Founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos , Blue Origin has sent 31 people to space since the company launched its blank tourism offering on July 20 , 2021 . Blue Origin has not bring out a set price for these trip , but some passengersclaimto have paid as much as $ 30 million .
The New Shepard rocket appeared to be completely enveloped in flame, prior to the capsule ejecting from the launch vehicle.Screenshot: Blue Origin
A cause of the anomaly has yet to be identified , but asreportedin SpaceNews , meditation is come out that something ’s amiss with New Shepard ’s BE-3 engine . The show of the railway locomotive feather change prior to the mishap , while debris could be visualize falling from the rocket engine . “ We are not fain to spill the beans about what in reality happened , ” Jarrett Jones , senior vice President of the United States for New Glenn at Blue Origin , said while speak at a World Satellite Business Week panel currently being held in Paris . “ It ’s a little previous to assume that it was something related to the railway locomotive . ”
Fair enough , but if it is an engine problem , that ’s potentially bad word for Blue Origin . engineering from the BE-3 locomotive engine has been transferred to the BE-3U engine that powers the upper stage of Blue Origin’sNew Glenn heavy - rhytidoplasty rocket , harmonise to SpaceNews . New Glenn is supposed to launch for the first time next year , but a faulty engine could falsify those plans .
This is n’t the first time that the FAA has had to press pause on a quad tourism offering . Virgin Galactic ’s SpaceShipTwo had to begroundedfollowing an incident on July 11 , 2021 , when VSS Unity strayed from sanctioned airspace and its pilots ignored monish lights during the ascent .
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the time to come , hand over to your present .
You May Also Like
