Saturday’s launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with an unmanned NS-23 mission ended in failure – 64 seconds into the flight, there was a problem with the launch vehicle. The error occurred when the MaxQ point, the maximum dynamic load, was exceeded.
Image Source: Blue Source
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The rocket took off at 10:26 am ET (5:26 pm ET) from the Blue Origin site in West Texas. On board the capsule were 36 payloads with scientific research equipment, which were to be delivered at an altitude of just over 100 km. Shortly after the flight begins (roughly 1:21:49 in the video below), you can see the moment when Blue Origin launches the rescue system: the emergency separation of the capsule with the payload from the rocket.
“We seem to have encountered an anomaly on today’s flight., – says the commentator during the broadcast. – This was not expected and we have no details yet. But the capsule managed to successfully disengage from the ship, we will control its descent until landing“.
Some time later, the capsule made a successful parachute landing on Earth. Subsequently, Blue Origin confirmed that the New Shepard reusable launch vehicle, which had already been launched 8 times before, failed during the NS-23 mission and fell to the ground.
As Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica noted, if the astronauts had been aboard at the time, “they would have felt a severe jolt, but most likely they would have been safe.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will investigate the incident. The agency will find out if the continued operation of the New Shepard missiles poses a security risk. As the investigation continues, Blue Origin will not be able to get the New Shepard to work. At the same time, no damage to public property related to the breakdown of the launch vehicle was reported.
Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, completed another manned suborbital launch in June, its fifth manned flight.
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