What Happened?
- Jeff Bezos’s New Shepard rocket regularly carries people, but in this experiment it was a payload for a batch of zero-G experiments.
- One minute after leaving the launch pad, the rocket experienced propulsion failure.
- It made a soft return to the ground with the help of parachutes, as a motor pushed the capsule clear.
- The incident happened at an altitude of 28,000 ft. (8.5 km).
- The vehicle was moving upward at 700mph (1120kmph).
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Space Companies’ New Shepard reusable rocket is designed to take passengers into space.
The capsule at the top of the rocket can hold up to six people at a time. The rocket itself, other than the capsule, is about 60 ft (18 m) tall, Air brakes are applied as the rocket moves downwards to reduce the speed remarkably by half. The engine fires into space and restarts for a controlled landing. At the time of landing, the landing gear deploys for touchdown.
The system inside the rocket is designed to sense the problems in the booster rocket and then push the capsule away to a safe distance.
Dr. Erika Wagner, a senior director at Blue Origin Space Company, was doing the in-flight webcast commentary. “It appears that we’ve experienced an anomaly with today’s flight,” she said shortly after the separation of the capsule from the rocket booster: This wasn’t planned and we don’t have any details yet.” It was the 23rd mission of New Shepard since its introduction in 2015.
In July 2021, on the system’s 16th outing, it started carrying people on short hops above the atmosphere. The crew was involved with Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark.
The mission on Monday included no crew members; rather, it was carrying 36 payloads from universities, research centers, and students from around the world, largely paid for by NASA.
- These tests aimed to experiment with the unique weightlessness conditions at the top of the capsule’s
- If anyone had been on board during the abort, they would have felt a strong shake as they separated from the aircraft, but they shouldn’t have felt any worse when they landed.
- The incident on Monday will be investigated, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which issues permits for commercial spaceflight in the US.
- The FAA said in a statement that this is standard procedure for all accident investigations. “Before the New Shepard vehicle can resume flight, the FAA will determine whether any system, process, or procedure related to the accident affected public safety.”
