Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket explodes during unmanned launch
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company suffered its first launch failure Mo🧜nday. No one w🔥as aboard, only science experiments.
The Blue Origin rocket blasted off from West Texas and was barely a minute into the flight 💖when bright yellow flam𓄧es shot out from around the single engine at the bottom. The capsule’s emergency launch abort system immediately kicked in, lifting the craft off the top. Several minutes later, the capsule parachuted onto the remote desert floor.
The rocket crashed back to Earth with no injuries or damage reported, the Federal Aviation Administration sai🐻d in a statement.
Althoဣugh this New Shepard rocket was dedicated to flying experiments, it was the same kind used for launching people on 10-minute rides to the edge of space. The rocket is grou♏nded pending the outcome of an investigation, said the FAA, which is in charge of public safety during commercial space launches and landings.
Blue Origin’s launch commentary went silent when the capsule catapulted off the rocket Monday morning, eventually announcing: “It appears we’ve experienced an anomaly with toꩲday’s flight. This wasn’t planned.”
“Booster failure on today’s uncrewed flightꦕ. Escape sys🌊tem performed as designed,” the Kent, Wash.-based company tweeted close to an hour later.
No further details were provided by the company.
The mishap occurred as the rocket was traveling nearly 700 mph at an altitude of about 28,000 feet. There was no video shown of the rocket — only the capsule — after the 💦failure. It happened around the poin🎀t the rocket is under the maximum amount of pressure, called max-q.
The rocket usually lands upright on the de♚sert floor and then is recycled for future flights.
The webcast showed the capsule reaching a maximum altitude of more than 37,000 feet. Thirty-six experiments were on board, half sponsored by NASA. Most were put to♔gether by students.
It was the 23rd flight for the New Shepard program, named after the first American in space, Mercury astronaut Alaꦕn Shepard and the ninth flight for this particular roc🥃ket-capsule pair.
Blue Origin’s most recent flight with paying customers was just last month; the ticket price hasn’t been released. Bezos was on the first New Shepard crew last year. Altogether, Blue Origin has carried 31 people, including actor William Shatner.
The rocket should have launched nearly two weeks ago, but was grou♛nd♎ed until Monday by bad weather.
