A rocket from Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin failed mid-flight shortly after liftoff on Monday, aborting its cargo capsule to safety before crashing into the Texas desert, according to the company and a live video stream of the mission.
Without any humans on board, the rocket lifted off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site Monday morning as the company's 23rd New Shepard mission, aiming to send NASA-funded experiments and other payloads to the edge of space to float for a few minutes in microgravity.
But just over a minute after liftoff, and roughly 5 miles above ground, the New Shepard booster's engines flared unexpectedly during ascent. The capsule's abort motor system triggered almost immediately, jetting the craft away from the faulty rocket before parachuting back to land intact.The booster crashed within a designated hazard area, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees and regulates launchsite safety.
"During today’s flight, the capsule escape system successfully separated the capsule from the booster," Blue Origin tweeted after the mishap. "The booster impacted the ground. There are no reported injuries; all personnel have been accounted for." The mission, called NS-23, was the first New Shepard launch without humans aboard in over a year, and the fourth mission in 2022. The rocket-capsule system has flown 31 people in all under Blue Origin's suborbital space tourism business, in which paying customers are launched some 62 miles high for a few minutes of microgravity at the edge of space before their capsule returns to land under parachutes.
The rocket that crashed on Monday had flown eight times before, but it was not immediately clear whether those past missions included humans. Blue Origin flew New Shepard 15 times before its first crewed flight.Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Says Booster Rocket Failed During Uncrewed MissionA rocket operated by Blue Origin failed during a planned uncrewed space flight, ending the mission prematurely, the Jeff Bezos-backed space company said
Read more »
Uncrewed launch from Bezos' Blue Origin suffers midflight anomaly, but cargo capsule is safely abortedA Blue Origin crew capsule carrying cargo to the edge of space aborted from its New Shepard rocket booster on Monday shortly after liftoff from Texas.
Read more »
Does Jeff Bezos Know His Space Capsule Is Named After a Socialist?When looking closely at a Blue Origin capsule, a former NASA scientist discovered that the craft in question was named after a bona fide socialist.
Read more »
The FAA Is Not Happy About Blue Origin's 'Incident' This MorningJeff Bezos' space comapny Blue Origin experienced a big setback today. And the FAA is officially investigating the 'mishap.'
Read more »
Bezos rocket crashes after liftoff, only experiments aboardJeff Bezos' rocket company has suffered its first launch failure. jeffbezos space kprc2 click2houston blueorigin
Read more »
Jeff Bezos company’s rocket crashes back to West Texas field in first accidentOnly experiments were aboard the Blue Origin flight, which used the same kind of rocket as ones sending paying customers to the edge of space.
Read more »